DG auditing telecom companies shunted; CAG says transfer 'routine'

NEW DELHI: A top officer who was overseeing the Comptroller and Auditor General's ongoing audit of books of private telecom companies - where the auditor was looking into alleged concealment of thousands of crores of revenues - has been abruptly transferred out.

After several years of legal battle, Supreme Court in April 2014 had granted the government auditor access to the books of private telecom operators, who have revenue sharing agreements with the government. The audit of telecoms is underway presently, and indications are that it could end up unearthing systemic suppression of revenues.

Their licence agreements mandate telecom companies to share a certain portion of their profits with government. Lower revenue reporting reduces the amount owed to the exchequer.

R B Sinha, director general of audit, post and telecommunications, was transferred on Monday, even as he was supervising the audit. Sinha has played a significant role in several major audit reports in the past and also in the 2010 audit of the 2G scam which was estimated to have cost the exchequer up to Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Sinha has been replaced by Meera Swarup.

B S Chauhan, media advisor to the CAG, told TOI the transfer was routine. He said Sinha's services were required at headquarters because of his competence and experience. "There have been 27 transfers and more are to come; all transfers are carried out around June-July," Chauhan said. At HQ, Sinha will be director general, direct taxes, an important responsibility, he added.

CAG audit teams in the telecom space have issued several aggressive audit paras in recent months under Sinha. Among them was their indictment of almost everyone involved in the allotment of 4G spectrum for broadband to a little-known company, which was later taken over by Reliance and became Reliance Jio. However, the final report played down those aggressive paras, leading to allegations that the report had been watered down.

Some within CAG and outside are surprised by Sinha's transfer at a time when the audit teams under his supervision are believed to be making impressive progress in detecting revenue suppression by telcos.

The SC judgement in April was considered landmark in that it threw open public-private partnerships and joint ventures to government scrutiny.

"When a nation's wealth, like spectrum, is being dealt with either by the union, state or its instrumentalities or even the private parties, like service providers, they are accountable to the people and to the Parliament," said a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Vikramjit Sen.