Union Petroleum Secretary Vivek Rae said his ministry was making all efforts to see that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is able to audit Reliance Industries’ (RIL) spending on KG-D6 block.
He said there have been some differences between CAG and RIL on the scope of audit but they are being resolved. He expressed hope that CAG would be able to resume audit by either month or early next month.
Rae said CAG stated that it is not planning to a do a performance audit of the company but only wants to examine “propriety” of expenses made.
RIL does not want the CAG to conduct performance audit on it citing that Production Sharing Contract (PSC) only provides for a government appointed auditor to verify reasonableness of all charges and credits.
Once the issue of scope of audit is resolved there should be no issues about records being made available. CAG had on March 12 written to the Oil Ministry that its audit of KG-D6 “would be financial and propriety audit” and the purpose of such scrutiny was to ensure that “the government’s financial interests have been safeguarded”, Rae has reportedly said.
Stating that such audit should be a financial scrutiny, the ministry told CAG that the provisions of PSC provide for a government appointed auditor inspecting and auditing all records and documents supporting costs, expenditures, expenses, receipts and income.
CAG said it was in agreement with this scope of audit provided the ministry agreed with it on the issue of requisition of records and access.
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