'PPP projects beyond CAG scrutiny'

“The performance of the public part of the (PPP) project should be subject to proper scrutiny but obviously where the private sector (is given) flexibility ... you cannot subject that to CAG scrutiny,” Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said at a conference on PPP on National Highways here.

The Commission notably opposed bringing PPP projects, which are worth hundreds and thousands of crores, under the ambit of the Right To Information act.

However, demand to bring such projects under RTI has been growing as more private sector players have been involved in such partnerships in recent times.

As private players do not come under the definition of public authorities, the information they possess cannot be retrieved using RTI.

“If you (government) have specified that they (private players) must do certain things and you are monitoring whether they are doing that and all of that is available through RTI (via the concerned authority) ... but how they are doing it, is entirely a private sector matter.
That need not be subject to RTI,” Montek said when asked about whether there is a case for CAG or RTI scrutiny of PPP projects