Defence secretary Shashi Kant Sharma to replace Vinod Rai as new CAG

NEW DELHI: Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma is all set to take oath as the new Comptroller and Auditor General ( CAG) on Wednesday, with the government picking his name for the sensitive post, sources said.

Sharma, a 1976 batch Bihar cadre IAS officer, will take over from Vinod Rai, whose term at the helm of the government's top auditor has been embarrassing for the Congress-led UPA because of a number of audit reports that questioned its policies and decisions, notably on 2G spectrum and coal block allocations.

Sharma, who will be administered the oath of office by President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday, is widely regarded as a textbook bureaucrat who lacks the flamboyance of his predecessor.

A political science ma jor with a masters degree from the University of York, Sharma has had a long innings at the defence ministry where he has spent much of the last decade. Apart from Sharma, Revenue Secretary Sumit Bose, Planning Commission Secretary Sindhushree Khullar and former Telecom Secretary R Chandrasekhar were said to be in the race for the CAG's post. The CAG is appointed for a term of six years or until the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.

Sharma's two-year term as defence secretary was set to end in July this year. He has earlier served as a secretary in the finance ministry's department of financial services and also as the director general (acquisition) in the defence ministry.