CAG wants dissenting ex-official to be present at JPC meeting

NEW DELHI: Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai, who will appear tomorrow before the Joint Parliamentary Committee looking into the 2G scam, wants the dissenting former CAG official R P Singh to be present at the time of his deposition.

Rai has written to JPC Chairman P C Chacko making this request, sources said.

Singh, CAG's ex-Director General (Audit), had contended that the loss in 2G spectrum allocation was only to the tune of Rs 2,645 crore. He appeared before the JPC today and stuck to his stand.

His contention goes against the CAG's official conclusion that the loss could have been up to Rs 1.76 lakh crore.

The joint appearance of Rai and Singh before Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in connection with 2G scam last week had led to a clash because of which the panel could not transact any business.

PAC members had wanted Rai to recuse himself when Singh appeared before the committee, but it was turned down by its Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi.

Meanwhile, a document of July 19, 2010, has surfaced and it shows that R P Singh had forwarded a draft report to the then Telecom Secretary P J Thomas wherein the expected losses on account of 2G spectrum allocation were shown as Rs 1.76 lakh crore.

Another 'inspection memo', which reportedly had the consent of Singh, had mentioned loss figure of Rs 48,374 crore due to non-revision of entry free for 2G spectrum.

When contacted, Singh said that the losses were "presumptive" and so he did not want to comment on it.