CAG rejects government criticism, defends adverse observations

The office of the comptroller and Auditor General has CAG rejected the government's criticism of its adverse observations over coal block allotment and ONGC's low emphasis on development of new oil blocks.
 
PTI quoted CAG sources as saying that policies of a government did not emerge from a vacuum but were a culmination of a due diligence process that involved faithful examination and analysis of empirical evidence on the ground, higher values of governance, feasibility of implementation, materiality of financial costs and perceivable benefits based on current and reasonably predictable facts.

They said, given the close relationship between the development of public policy and its implementation and financial implications it was unrealistic to expect that C&AG's audit findings would not cast any shadow on the policy itself.

The observations came in response to criticism of the official auditor by the government and also an article written by Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari questioning CAG's mandate to examine government policies.

CAG's findings that allocation of 57 coal blocks resulted in a loss of Rs1.86 lakh crore to the exchequer evoked sharp reaction from the government and the Congress party, with parliament also being disrupted for days over the report.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh had questioned the CAG findings on coal blocks allocation and termed these as "disputable and flawed". He had said the policy of coal blocks allocation to private parties, which the CAG had criticised, was not a new policy introduced by the UPA, rather it had existed since 1993 and previous government also allocated coal blocks in precisely the manner that the CAG had criticised.

The government auditor had made adverse comments about ONGC for its failure to execute work commitments and doing a tardy job of monetising its discoveries.