CAG audit of RIL’s D6 oil block will go ahead: Moily

Petroleum and natural gas minister Veerappa Moily today said that audit of Reliance Industries Ltd's operation of the Krishna-Godavari D6 gas block is an integral part of its contractual obligation and RIL will abide by it.

"I have already gone on record to say that it is a contractual relationship between the government and the respective contracting parties. Audit is part of this (contractual obligation)," he told the media in New Delhi.

Moily said the ministry will not create ''any problems'' for RIL or the Comptroller & Auditor General of India.

''They (RIL) will abide by that (contractual obligation). We need not create problems either for them or for the government and the CAG.''

An 'entry meeting' between the CAG, the ministry and RIL scheduled for 31 October to kick off the audit process was postponed by the ministry. It was widely reported at the time that RIL wanted to limit the scope of the audit to financials rather than performance, and also wanted the results to be kept private, to which the CAG disagreed saying it was constitutionally obliged to lay the results of the audit before Parliament.

However, a petroleum ministry statement later clarified that the postponement was due to administrative reasons and will in no way affect either the procedure or the content of the audit by CAG of the D6 block.