Reliance game for CAG audit, says oil secretary

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has finally agreed to allow the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) to complete an audit of the KG-D6 fields, which has been pending after the company objected to the scope and extend of scrutiny by the government auditor.

Oil secretary Vivek Rae said RIL agreed to the audit of the KG-D6 fields by the Comptroller and Auditor General after the petroleum ministry intervened to resolve the issues over scope and extent of its scrutiny.

''The audit issue has been resolved and that's a big step forward that we will now get CAG to do the audit for the last 3-4 years and if there are issues, the company can react and remedial action can be taken,'' he said on the sidelines of a CII annual general meeting.

''We have sent the letter, hopefully in a day or two they will confirm to us that they have agreed to it,'' he added.

The CAG was forced to suspend audit of the flagging KG-D6 block in January after RIL objected to a performance audit of the KG-D6 field.

''The audit will happen. We are pretty clear about that. We are making all efforts to see that CAG is able to perform its duty,'' Rae said on Tuesday.

RIL was against the CAG conducting a performance audit on it, as, according to the company, the production sharing contract (PSC) only provides for a government appointed auditor to verify reasonableness of all charges and credits.

The CAG too has now stated that it is not planning to do a performance audit of the company but only wants to examine ''propriety'' of expenses made.

The CAG, however, wanted the discretion for records to be requisitioned to be vested with the government or its auditor (CAG).