P Chidambaram: Vinod Rai did not write to me on audit of PPP projects

NEW DELHI: Former finance minister P Chidambaram has said that Vinod Rai, the then Comptroller & Auditor General, had not written to him on the subject of audit of public-private partnership projects.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Chidambaram said: “I have read some interviews given by Shri Vinod Rai, former CAG, where he has remarked that letters written by him to Dr Manmohan Singh, Shri Pranab Mukherjee and me on the subject of audit of PPP projects did not receive any response.”

He said this was not true. “I do not recall any letter addressed to me by the CAG on the subject. I have since confirmed that no letter was addressed to me,” the former minister said.

Chidambaram, however, said some letters were written to his predecessor and now President Pranab Mukherjee. “There were some letters addressed to Shri Mukherjee in 2010 and they were dealt with at the level of the additional secretary and secretary, Department of Economic Affairs,” he said in the statement.

“The file was not put up to me after I returned to the ministry of finance in August 2012.” He added that the government had not taken a final view on the issue. “I have also learned that there was, and is, regular correspondence on the subject between the office of the CAG and the ministry of finance, but no final view has been taken by the government,” the statement said.