‘CAG does coordinate with CBI, CVC’………Shantanu Nandan Sharma
Vinod Rai, Comptroller and Auditor General of India was in China recently to receive the honour of professorship at Nanjing AuditVinod Rai, Comptroller and Auditor General of India University, as China has been revamping its audit system and wants to borrow some of the Indian best auditing practices. But back home, the IPL drama took an ugly turn, and government agencies such as Enforcement Directorate and I-T department have swung into action to gather clues about irregularities in financial dealings in the billion dollar IPL event. While talking to Shantanu Nandan Sharma, Mr Rai said IPL does not come under CAG’s ambit, but did not deny that there were occasions in which government wanted CAG to investigate books of private companies. Some excerpts:
Vinod Rai, Comptroller and Auditor General of India was in China recently to receive the honour of professorship at Nanjing AuditVinod Rai, Comptroller and Auditor General of India University, as China has been revamping its audit system and wants to borrow some of the Indian best auditing practices. But back home, the IPL drama took an ugly turn, and government agencies such as Enforcement Directorate and I-T department have swung into action to gather clues about irregularities in financial dealings in the billion dollar IPL event. While talking to Shantanu Nandan Sharma, Mr Rai said IPL does not come under CAG’s ambit, but did not deny that there were occasions in which government wanted CAG to investigate books of private companies. Some excerpts:
Will Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects finally come under CAG?
The Planning Commission has initiated the process of bringing in PPP under CAG’s purview. Currently, we don’t have the mandate about 50% of the Central funds that are being implemented through Panchayati Raj Institutions, NGOs and PPP. For example, we can’t audit Central government projects worth Rs 83,000 cr earmarked for FY10-11 under the Plan scheme. Also, at times, we don’t get timely access to information from various government departments. So, a Bill will be brought in Parliament to correct some of the present anomalies.
So, that will allow you to audit PPP projects too. But what’s about the instances of auditing books of private companies?
When the government invites us to audit books of private companies, we do that. Currently, we are going through the books of RIL, Cairn Energy and British Gas in connection to gas exploration business. Similarly, we are examining the audit records of seven telecom companies involved in 2G licence bidding. Many of those private companies hesitated to give us their records, but finally we managed to get those. We should be able to prepare our reports by October this year.
What’s about IPL or BCCI?
Those don’t come under our purview.
But if the government invites you to look into IPL…
I don’t want to comment on that.
But what about the huge inflow of money from unknown sources that may enter into our legal system?
We are not an investigative agency. But yes, if we find auditing irregularities anywhere, we do report to agencies like Central Bureau of Investigation and Central Vigilance Commission. In fact, CBI and CVC chiefs and I meet at least once in a quarter. In case of the Satyam investigation, Serious Fraud Investigation Office wanted our help to scrutinise the company records. Six of our auditors helped SFIO in their investigation into Satyam’s records.
What about your report to PMO on Commonwealth Games?
That’s not a CAG report per se. We have started a series called “Aid to Administration” under which we prepared a status report of various Commonwealth related programmes. It was a credible document at a time when there were conflicting news on actual status of Commonwealth Games projects. We submitted it to the PMO.
What’s the outcome of your reports?
We submit our reports, and that’s where our work ends. But we are changing our philosophy now, and have begun to undertake performance audit and outcome audit. Here, we also examine the effectiveness of money spending.
But most of your reports are big in size and difficult to understand…
Yes, we have attempted to simplify our reports and have now come out with small and easily comprehensible reports on our performance audit of most social schemes. I feel, these volumes will be understood by any common man.
Finally, any new area that you are venturing into?
We have just begun a new process of environment audit. Say, auditing of water pollution. In such an audit, we are actively engaging the local community as well.
URL: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5854585.cms