CAG refutes RIL's charge of not being given a hearing

The Comptroller and Auditor-General yesterday strongly refuted the charge that private operators including Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) were not give a chance to have their say before finalisation of its draft performance audit report on oil and gas production sharing contracts (PSCs).

CAG said an opportunity had been given to all operators to respond to its observations.

RIL and Cairn India are now under the scanner following accusations in the draft report that the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) had provided ''huge'' and ''undue benefit'' to these companies and allowed ''irregularities and bending rules'' to ''oblige'' RIL in the Krishna Godavari Basin gas fields, which led to a massive and as yet ''unquantifiable'' loss to the exchequer.

Responding to reports suggesting that it refused to give RIL an opportunity to comment on its draft report, the CAG said in a statement, that as per the standard practice it followed for all its performance audits, an entry conference and exit conference was conducted with the audited entity, which in this case was the ministry.

In the statement it also said, in the case of the performance audit of hydrocarbon PSC, interactive meetings were held with two operators, including RIL, before the finalisation of the draft performance audit report.

CAG said that at no stage did the office refuse any operator an opportunity to respond to the observations it had made.