JPC grills finance ministry officials, CAG officials next

The Joint Parliamentary Committee investigating the 2G scam yesterday grilled top finance ministry officials for their failure to provide it the controversial 25 March note on 2G spectrum allocation.
 
The committee also decided to call CAG Vinod Rai and a former senior official of the government auditor to quiz them on the presumptive loss issue.

Secretary, finance R S Gujral and secretary, department of economic affairs, R Gopalan appeared before the JPC to explain to the panel, why the finance ministry failed to submit the note - which indicated that had then finance minister P Chidambaram insisted, the 2G spectrum could have been auctioned.

Committee chairman PC Chacko told reporters that Gopalan told the panel that during its 7 July  briefing, the finance ministry had covered all ''relevant documents and facts available on files to JPC''.
 
According to the official, the note was a background paper consisting of ex post facto facts.

In response to a query by Chacko on the failure of the ministry to provide the document, Gopalan said the note did not add anything of relevance beyond the facts already covered in the 7 July briefing.

According to Chacko, without going into the merits of the note, the committee took a serious view of the fact that a number of papers referred to in the note and files related to the preparation of the noted had not been furnished to the JPC for perusal.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry top brass has been asked to provide the committee with the documents and appear before it on 14 November.