Former Civil Servants Urge CAG to Submit Audit Reports on Rafale, Demonetisation at the Earliest
New Delhi: A group of 60 former civil servants, expressing concern over the “unconscionable and unwarranted delay”, has written a letter to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, urging him to submit audit reports on the Rafale Deal and Demonetisation to the President of India at the earliest.
Citing a report in The Hindu (CAG to undertake audit of demonetisation fallout, March 3, 2017), the letter says the previous CAG had said that the government auditor was well within its right to seek audit of the fiscal impact of demonetisation, especially the impact on tax revenues.
“It is more than 20 months since the previous CAG made the above statement but there is no sight of the promised audit report on demonetisation,” said the public letter released on Monday.
Commenting on the audit report on the controversial Rafale deal, the former civil servants cited various news reports indicating that the related files were yet to be scrutinised by the CAG, “even though 42 months have elapsed since the deal was announced in April 2015.”
Reminding the CAG of the appreciation from various quarters on its audit reports on the 2G scam, coal scam, Adarsh scam, Commonwealth Games scam, etc., which influenced public perception of the then governments actions, , the letter said that an “impression is gaining ground that the CAG is deliberately delaying its audit reports on Demonetisation and the Rafale deal till after the May 2019 elections so as not to embarrass the present government.”
“The CAG’s failure to present the audit reports on Demonetisation and the Rafale deal in time may be seen as a partisan action and may create a crisis of credibility for this important institution. Due to the cacophony of claims and counterclaims, accusations and mudslinging in the media and elsewhere, the citizens do not know what the reality is. We believe that citizens have a right to insist upon the timely submission of audit reports by the CAG so that they can make an informed choice while voting,”adds the letter.
Read the full letter here:
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