CAG refuses public debate on its coal scam report

Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai has refused to join a public debate on the controversy sparked by the agency’s damning report on coal blocks allocation by the Union government.

The government auditor, in a press release on Tuesday, said: “Being a Constitutional authority, the CAG   feels that it would be improper on his part to join a public debate on this issue.” The statement added that the CAG would clarify on the report “at the appropriate forum when required.”

The CAG statement, it said, was prompted by repeated media calls seeking reaction to news reports on the allocation of coal blocks and augmentation of coal production, presented in Parliament on August 17, and subsequent clarifications in that regard.

The CAG’s statement comes amid a raging debate over its findings of a presumptive loss of a whopping Rs 1.86 lakh crore from the allocation of coal blocks and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh questioning several of its conclusions in Parliament on Monday. Singh had described the CAG report as “flawed and disputable” and said its recommendations were against democratic processes.