New Delhi: A Public Interest Litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the appointment of the new Comptroller and Auditor General. Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma is set to take charge as the new CAG and his appointment is already being questioned by the Opposition, which calls it a case of conflict of interest.
Sharma handled several defence acquisitions and the government has given no reason for appointing him as CAG. The Supreme Court will now hear the matter in July.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley said he was not making remark about the individual but it was an "institutional conflict of interest". Jaitley, who is Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said a substantial part of budget was spent on defence procurement. "He will audit it himself. Is it appropriate?" Jaitley asked.
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12:11 PM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday targeted the UPA government over appointment of Shashi Kant Sharma as the new Comptroller and Auditor General of India, and said there was "institutional conflict of interest" as he will be auditing defence deals which were finalised during his term as defence secretary. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley said he was not making remark about the individual but it was an "institutional conflict...
05:08 AM, May 23, 2013
Wednesday was Vinod Rai's last day as Comptroller and Auditor General of India. ...
11:48 PM, May 22, 2013
New Delhi: Even as the UPA hopes to put controversies and scams behind it on the completion of its 4 years in power, the government may be looking at another row, this one over the selection of the new Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma is set to take charge as the new CAG and his appointment is already being questioned with the Opposition calling...
01:59 PM, May 22, 2013
New Delhi: Vinod Rai's tenure as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India ends on Wednesday. Rai's five years in office are seen as controversial given the CAG reports on the coal scam and the 2G spectrum allocation scam. Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma will take charge as the new CAG, but his appointment is already being questioned. Vinod Rai is the man who caused a big embarrassment to the...
11:00 AM, May 22, 2013
New Delhi: CAG report commands respect and cannot be brushed aside but it cannot be the final word on an issue, the Supreme Court said on Thursday while noting that the auditor's findings cannot be gospel truth as it is subject to scrutiny by Parliament. A bench of justices KS Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra said that CAG's report is always subject to parliamentary debates and it is possible that Public...
10:40 PM, May 09, 2013
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has tabled its report on the Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA, as it was utilised across India. CNN-IBN has accessed the report which says only 30 per cent of 129 lakh works worth over Rs 1.26 lakh crore approved in 14 states were completed. ...
11:49 PM, Apr 23, 2013
New Delhi: Downplaying CAG's report on the Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said that it is a performance and not a financial audit. Ramesh said, "It is CAG's job to find shortcomings and if they don't show, it means they are not doing their job." Ramesh further said that the audit was conducted only after the government requested for it. The clarification comes after...
03:50 PM, Apr 23, 2013
New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has tabled its report on the Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA, as it was utilised across India. CNN-IBN has accessed the report which says only 30 per cent of 129 lakh works worth over Rs 1.26 lakh crore approved in 14 states were completed. Barely 30 per cent of NREGA works completed, while Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh used only 20...
12:37 PM, Apr 23, 2013
Mumbai: The CAG report on irrigation projects was tabled in the Maharashtra Assembly on Thursday. The CAG slammed the Maharashtra government over incomplete irrigation projects, saying it has led to cost overruns of around Rs 27,000 crore in a finding that could raise questions on the role of NCP and its leader Ajit Pawar. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, which presented its report for the year ending March...
04:31 PM, Apr 18, 2013
New Delhi: The government will "soon" decide on the new CAG and would take a call whether to make it a three-member body at an "appropriate time", Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy has said. "It (name of CAG) will happen soon. The Finance Minister will recommend a candidate to the Prime Minister, who will approve it and send it to the President for announcing," he told...
08:43 PM, Apr 11, 2013
Shimla: Government auditor CAG has found revenue loss of Rs 1,569.41 crore in Himachal Pradesh due to under assessment and short levy during financial year 2011-12. There has also been an increase of 13 per cent in revenue collections in 2011-2012 and the state also received Rs 1,998.37 crore as its share of divisible union taxes, the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG's) report tabled in the Vidhan Sabha by Chief...
12:38 AM, Apr 10, 2013
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has said government-owned firms in Gujarat granted "undue benefit" to big industrial houses, which resulted in revenue losses worth crores of rupees to the state exchequer. The CAG report, for the year ended March 31, 2012, was tabled on Tuesday in the Gujarat State Assembly. ...
11:04 PM, Apr 02, 2013
Telecom operators could face penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh for submitting false and incomplete information in the action taken report (ATR) regarding metering and billing system, Trai said on Monday. The regulator Trai on Monday issued Quality of Service (Code of Practice for Metering and Billing Accuracy) (Amendment) Regulations, 2013, which can impose a financial disincentive of Rs 1 lakh per week on telecom companies for delay in...
02:30 AM, Mar 26, 2013
Meghalaya's Congress Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Thursday assured his state that his government would soon pass a strong and effective Lokayukta Bill. Governor RS Mooshahary had withheld his assent to a controversial Meghalaya Lokayukta (ombudsman) Bill passed in the assembly by the previous Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance government, which too was headed by Sangma. ...
04:27 AM, Mar 22, 2013
The Board of Italian defence giant Finmeccanica has carried out major organisational changes in the wake of the AgustaWestland scandal and the arrest of its Chief Executive Officer Giuseppe Orsi. All aerospace and defence businesses are being restructured and internal audit activities are being centralised. ...
04:43 PM, Feb 23, 2013
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai on Friday took a potshot at the government, saying the governance in these days has become too important to be left to the government, even as he virtually called ministers, MPs and MLAs typical bullies. ...
09:57 PM, Feb 15, 2013
Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Friday hit back at Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai after he blamed the government of crony capitalism during a speech at Harvard. Reacting to Rai's speech, Digvijaya said, "If not an accountant, what does he want to be? The Prime Minister? The Constitution has defined the role of the CAG. How will a democracy function if judiciary does the job of the...
02:51 PM, Feb 08, 2013
In a hard-hitting speech, the Comptroller and Auditor General, Vinod Rai, has defended his role. Rai has said that the role of the public auditor cannot be confined only to placing reports in Parliament. During a speech at the Harvard Kennedy School of government, Rai spoke on the various scams in the government. ...
11:30 AM, Feb 08, 2013
The medical arm of the defence services on Friday came in for criticism by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) over "critical shortage" of medical officers which is likely to impact patient care. ...
05:32 PM, Dec 14, 2012
