THE AUDITOR ARRIVES
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    • THE AUDITOR ARRIVES
    Comptroller and Auditor General of India is an office created by our constitution to audit Government accounts on a regular basis and inform the people through Parliament whether the amounts spent from the coffers of the exchequer have been properly spent and whether there are any malafide intentions behind such expenditure including time and cost over runs which are some times delibarate. CAG reports have been brandied as an indictment of sorts on the performance of the Government of the day and mostly they are tabled in the house debated and the Public Accounts Committee goes in to the report to suggest remedial measures as to non recurrence of such misdeeds. Some times Government polices are also commented upon even though I believe that does not fall in the ambit of its powers. CAG reports are usually taken with a pinch of salt because they are mostly a post mortem report.

    Ever since the present CAG tabled his now famous report on Spectrum allocation and the notional losses on account of not auctioning the spectrum, the report has come in handy to tar every politician indicted by the report as corrupt warranting capital punishment if possible. In the case of spectrum, the report was flawed on major counts. First the New Telecom Policy of NDA and the 12th Plan document have clearly spelt out increasing tele density is of more importance than revenue generation. Neither the policy nor TRAI have recommended auctioning of the spectrum. If the Minister in question has not auctioned the spectrum he has only followed the policy set forth by a predecessor government. Now again the attempt of the CAG to quantify the losses- which are mostly imaginary on the basis of infusion of additional capital by overseas companies in companies awarded spectrum for a fee based in 2001- estimating the premium on the shares to be the acutal value of spectrum and by another method of a disqualified bidders attempt to offer much higher price than the floor price in a letter to PMO to arrive at notional losses and the estimates based on the price discovery  of spectrum through auctioning in 3G case to arrive at another notional figure all  adding up to a staggering 17000 billion. The media targeted minister and his party as if such huge sum of money was taken away from the coffers of the Government in suitcases and parked overseas. Result? The minister is still langushing in jail denied bail  his party was voted out of power. The arguments of the minister in the trial court have brought more dirt in the open implicating the PMO and even the PM - perceived to be honest.  That is a different matter altogether

     

    Then comes the report on CWG mess with indictments too many on Sheila Dikshit one of the most respected and efficient CMs in India. Now only the Congress party has thought it fit to respond that CAG report is not final. The arrogation of powers by CAG is something dangerous to democracy. It may be to the liking of the middle class lobby who despite their known antipathy to election and elected representatives, love to rule by proxy.

    In all these occasions CAG report was with the media even before it could be tabled,. How come the CAG is not able to explain this leakage to media which is something sinister in design? Why not the government takes CAG to task for not ensuring secrecy of a report meant for discussion in Parliament.

    This CAG has some motives behind his audacity.
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