Strengthen the CAG

I endorse your editorial “Accountability – Is It Just a Word?” (EPW, 1 September 2012). However, I also feel that you are rather soft in raising your pointers regar­ding the allocation of the coal blocks, establishment of the Indira Gandhi Inter­national Airport in Delhi under the public-private partnership model and several other pro­jects that pushed the government on the defensive, with reactions that were totally unacceptable. Not only is the government bent on repeating the same mistakes under different pretexts, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and his countrywide network of Auditor Generals (AGs) have been treated as a nuisance. Rarely have governments shown the patience to ­appreciate the point raised or the willingness to act on them. One argument that is frequently made is that the CAG does not have anything to do with policy, not quite appreciating that policies are but guidelines for executive action and unless the policy is brought under the scanner, the actions following from them cannot be stalled.

About the argument that the CAG was not correct in raising the issue of underpricing the coal blocks and that these prices are but presumptive, does not hold ­water. The officialdom has challenged the proposition that government’s losses have been colossal by terming them presumptive and gross overstatements. Rather, if the methods of marine insurance and its concept of “constructive total loss” had been used, the losses shown by the CAG would have been much higher. Thus it is arguable that the CAG put the loss figures on the lower side.