New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on Thursday denied a newspaper report that said the government lost Rs.10.67 trillion (Dh765 billion) when it decided to allocate coal blocks without public auction.
As the report, which rocked the corridors of power and even forced parliament to adjourn its morning session, a CAG letter addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the national treasury did not lose anything as the leaked report is not even part of its pre-final draft report.
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) promptly issued a statement, quoting CAG, as saying: "In the extant case, the details being brought out were observations which are under discussion at a very preliminary stage and do not even constitute our pre-final draft and hence are exceedingly misleading."
The PMO statement further quoted CAG as saying that the leak of the initial draft causes great embarrassment as the audit report is still being prepared.
A Times of India report said that the CAG draft report revealed that undue favour was granted to several private and government sector companies and caused the national treasury to lose Rs.10.67 trillion with the government's allocation of 155 coal blocks to power, steel and cement industries without the benefit of an auction during the first term of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) between 2004 and 2009.
Greater than 2G scam
The reported loss was far greater than the 2G spectrum allocation scam which the CAG had estimated to have caused the government to lose Rs.1.76 trillion.
The government is still battling to come clean in the 2G spectrum allocation scam. Former Telecom Minister A. Raja continues to languish in prison since February last year in connection with the scam.
Interestingly, Prime Minister Singh held the coal portfolio for the greater part of the UPA's rule.
The opposition seized the opportunity to mount an attack on the government and demanded an answer from the prime minister who was in the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) when the issue was raised.
Singh, however, opted to remain silent while Minister for Coal Sriprakash Jaiswal defended himself by saying he was not in charge of the ministry during that time and that no allocation had been made ever since he got the portfolio.
"I can't comment on the basis on any media reports. If we receive the CAG report, we will analyse it and then take action. I am coal minister only in the [second term of the] UPA and during this time no coal block has been given," Jaiswal said.
The ruling Congress party refused to comment on the issue.
The opposition was quick to slam the government and demanded an enquiry be conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). "The coal allotment scam is a major scam. We demand a CBI probe and a court should monitor the probe. It is a government of scamsters [that is] involved in knee-deep corruption," Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesman Prakash Javadekar said.
