Tewari pulls up CAG for targetting Govt. at international forum

Chennai: Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Friday lashed out at Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai for hitting out at the Manmohan Singh-led UPA II Government at an international forum, and said that constitutional authorities should be circumscribed by the 'Lakshman Rekha' propriety. "Well, I think it’s not a question of accountants-qua-auditors. The question is about integrity of numbers. Our question as to Mr. CAG where is the 1,76,000 crores, still continues to hang in the air. So, therefore it’s most unfortunate that the CAG rather than validating the integrity of his numbers chooses to criticize the government on foreign soil," said Tewari.
 
"And this is not the first time that he has done it and I think constitutional authorities should be circumscribed by the ''Lakshman Rekha'' propriety," he added. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Rajnath Singh, however, refused to comment on the issue. "I have neither read any statement nor any report of the CAG.  Until I don’t read it, how can I make any comment," he told media in New Delhi.
 
In his lecture at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts (U.S.) yesterday, the CAG took on the government for attempting to reduce the federal auditor to a mere accountant with no real role in auditing policy. Rai, whose reports on losses from 2G spectrum and coal block allocations sparked allegations of massive corruption in the government, said that the role of a public auditor cannot be confined to merely placing reports in Parliament.
 
"Should we as public auditors limit our role to placing reports in Parliament or go beyond that and seek to sensitise public opinion on our audit observations, especially in the social sector such as rural health, primary education, water pollution, environment, drinking water etc?" he said.