Vindo Rai, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India,continued to be the chief tormentor of the UPA through 2012 with some moreexplosive disclosures and, in the process, drew not only more sharp commentsbut, for the first time, a not-so veiled threat to weaken the institutionitself.
The threat came days after Rai talked of an appallingbrazenness in which decisions were being taken by the UPA to explain the megascams that have hit the country in the past three years “ 2G, CWG, Antrix-Devasdeal, coal block allotment scams etc “ at the World Economic Forum meet inGurgaon in November. The MoS in PMO, V Narayansami, said the government was activelyconsidering a proposal to make the official auditor a three-member body, a lathe election commission in 1990s, only to retract it when it sparked protests.Until then, the attack on CAG was limited to accusing it (wrongly) oftransgressing into the policy domain of the government and a fancy for addingzeros to make the scams look more sinister.
The year 2012 saw several damning audit reports, the mostimportant one of which was regarding the captive coal block allotment to theprivate players. It said the private players had made a windfall gain of Rs1.86 lakh crore because of the allocation of 57 coal blocks between 2004 and2009 in an arbitrary and opaque manner, without going for a competitive biddingthat no less than the PMO had decreed in 2004.
Another one was regarding multiple irregularities committedby the private sector giant Reliance Industries in exploring the KG basin gasfields. Gas production had fallen sharply and yet, the company was seeking ahigher rate for the gas claiming a suspiciously higher cost of explorationwhile steadfastly refusing to come clean and show its account books to theauditor. Yet another one said how DIAL, a private entity tasked with buildingthe new international airport terminal in Delhi, had made a windfall gain of Rs1.64 lakh crore because it was given 240 acre of land for commercial use at anominal lease of Rs 100 a year.
Public pressure may have tied the hands of the government,but it is waiting for Rai to retire in May 2013 so that it can find a morepliable officer to occupy the high office.
In association with Governance Now
