Two days after telecom minister Kapil Sibal slammed the government auditor for its report on 2G spectrum allocation, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai said he ?100% stands by the contents of his report?.
When contacted, Rai said he would explain to the Parliament?s Public Accounts Committee on the logic behind arriving at the presumptive loss figure of Rs 1,76,645 crore.
He is scheduled to be present at a PAC meeting on January 12. His officials are preparing a strong rebuttal to Sibal’s statement that there was ?no merit? in CAG’s criticism. Top sources in the CAG said the department of telecom had at least three opportunities to contest the auditor’s findings before it was laid in Parliament. ?But neither the DoT secretary nor the DoT officials opposed the main findings of the report. Even during the last meeting to discuss the draft report, as late as October 4 last year, the department did not raise any objections on the presumptive losses,? said a source, who did not wish to be quoted.
Another source said Rai was unlikely to complain to the Prime Minister about Sibal’s ?improper? action of calling a press conference to debunk the auditor’s report when a Parliamentary committee was holding day-to-day sittings on issue. ?PAC Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi is seized of the matter,? the source said, adding that Section 1.12 of the Rules of Parliament Procedure, public comments by a member may even amount to a contempt of the House. In his press conference on January 7, Sibal had argued that CAG?s logic was completely flawed since the Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss estimate was based on the assumption that spectrum should have been auctioned. ?Government policy is formulated with a view to maximise public welfare, and not merely to maximise government revenues,? he said. Sibal also said the CAG wrongly interpreted the PMss letter containing suggestions to the DoT as ?a direction?. ?The only direction by the PM was that the ministry should act in a fair and transparent manner and keep the PM informed,? he said. Further, he said the PM was informed of the pricing aspects that were agreed upon by the finance ministry as well.