The Comptroller and Auditor General of India Report when tabled in Parliament has taken whole nation by storm. The Report suggested a total loss of over Rs 1,86000 Crores to the Government. Below are few important findings in CAG Report
1. The CAG report on the allocation of 57 coal-mining blocks in 2004 to 2011 said the government had lost as much as 1.85 trillion rupees ($33 billion) by allocating the licenses to private companies without a transparent auction.
2.The auditor also criticized the government for the way in which it awarded the contract for New Delhi’s international airport. The report said an international consortium led by GMR Infrastructure Ltd. paid too low a price in 2006 for the right to develop and operate the airport and surrounding land for 30 years, leading to large losses for the country.
3. The audit report also names 25 companies that were beneficiaries, including Essar Power, Jindal Steel and Power, Hindalco and Tata Power, DB Power, Adani Power, CESC, Monnet Ispat, Rungta Mines, Mukund and Tata Steel.
4. The CAG said that to be eligible to bid for a Ultra Mega Power Project, a company should have implemented projects worth Rs 3,000 crore in the last 10 years including one project of more than 500 crore. However, CAG estimated that out of investment of Rs 4,416 crore claimed by Reliance Power while bidding for the Sasan project, only Rs 1,292 crore was “admissible experience” while the rest “may not conform to the stipulated qualifying requirements”. The CAG report on power projects which is equally damaging, says undue financial benefit given to Reliance Power amounted to over Rs 29,000 crore.
5. Mr. Narayanasamy at the prime minister’s office says the CAG report can’t be considered as evidence of any loss to the government unless it is approved by the public accounts committee—a panel of parliamentarians that oversees such audit reports and is now headed by an opposition politician.
What the government will find difficult to deny is the fact that after being allotted the coal fields at throwaway prices, many of these private firms sold their companies at huge profits while some others actually sold coal in the open market in utter violation of their terms of contract
The prime minister has gone on record some time ago as saying that he would resign if even ‘an iota of truth’ was found in the allegations of corruption made by Team Anna Hazare against him, apart from 14 other Cabinet members.