Imputing motives to CAG reports to hurt accountability, good governance, says Vinod Rai

NEW DELHI: Imputing motives to audit reports of CAG would hinder accountability and good governance, CAG Vinod Rai has said. "Ascribing political motive to the institution and its officers would only be detrimental to its task of promoting accountability and good governance," he said CPI mouthpiece Janayugam in an interview.

"Several times our findings and judgment have been questioned - it happened in the Bofors case in the 1980s, in the audit of disinvestment in 1990s, in the coffin case in 2002, and in the spectrum case recently. Every time we were proven right. All these years, we have maintained our objectivity, impartiality and professional competence," he claimed in the interview.

He favoured open competition in both government procurement and allocation of resources to achieve value in these transactions. "Existing rules and regulations and processes do not adequately provide requisite transparency. Fair and open competition is the best and most transparent way of achieving value for money in large procurements and also in cases of allocation or lease of public assets or natural resources," he added.

In the 150 year history of the CAG, he says, it has upheld standards and is looked up to for its international levels of competence. "CAG has a critical role to play in ensuring transparency and good governance in the country," he said. The 1,86,000 crore losses to the exchequer because of allocation of coal blocks to private firms and power companies was "a most conservative estimate," Rai reiterated.

Rai said that the "figures in the report were logical and irrefutable. The computations have been made on the basis of sound and reasonable assumptions. "We have taken the most conservative alternative in arriving at the financial impact of allocation of coal blocks through the present system."

He said he was confident of upholding the credibility of the audit report.