CAG to start fresh audit of RIL’s KG-D6 gas block on 9 January

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) will start a second round of audit on Reliance Industries' flagging eastern offshore KG-D6 gas block on 9 January amidst uncertainty that the RIL would fully cooperate with the government auditor.

The audit that was scheduled to start on 2 January had to be deferred to 9 January due to some differences over the scope of the audit.

RIL had been insisting that the government can appoint any auditor to do a financial audit of its spending in KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in the east coast of India but it won't allow a performance audit as the production sharing contract (PSC) with the government does not provide for it.

CAG, however, said there are no restrictions on the nature of its audit as it has a constitutional mandate.

The oil ministry, meanwhile, has given in writing to RIL that the CAG audit will be strictly as per section 1.9 of the Accounting Procedure to the Production Sharing Contract (PSC).

RIL is reported to have agreed to cooperate and provide full access of its books of accounts to CAG on this assurance. It has also dropped its demand that the report of CAG be not made public.