Manmohan Singh could, but didn't stop scams: Vinod Rai blasts Congress

Former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai, whose tell-all book Not just an Accountant is to hit the stands soon, said that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could have easily prevented high-profile scandals like 2G spectrum allocation scam, coal blocks allocation scam and the Commonwealth Games scam, had he used his stamp of authority. The former Comptroller and Auditor General had a tumultuous tenure in office as the then UPA government, with the Congress party up in arms against him for letting out reports which were not in their favour. Rai in an interview with Times Now’s editor-in-chief, Arnab Goswami on Thursday evening quite readily admitted that had Singh been firm, the government may not have been mired in as much controversy. [caption id=“attachment_1708419” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Former prime minister Manmohan Singh. PTI[/caption] Could 2G scam been prevented? According to the CAG report that was tabled in Parliament of 15 November 2010, the loss to the exchequer on account of the 2008 policy followed for allocation of 2G spectrum was a whopping Rs 1.76 lakh crore. And Rai revealed that he faced pressure from Congress MPs, who were part of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the scam, to keep the Prime Minister’s name out of the report. “During the course of the JPC meetings, large number of Congress MPs like Sanjay Nirupam, Ashwani Kumar and Sandeep Dikshit did tell me to keep then prime minister Manmohan Singh out of it. But by then the report was already tabled in Parliament,” Rai told Times Now. However, the former CAG clarified that no one from the Prime Minister’s Office had exerted pressure on him to drop Singh’s name. Rai said that he even met the PM the next day at a function where Singh simply told him that the CAG’s method of computation was not correct. “We had given four different methods of computation but the one that the government had used was certainly not right. I politely told the PM that our computation methods may be debatable but the fact that there was a loss to the exchequer is not debatable,” Rai said. The former CAG said that if Singh had wanted, he could have prevented the 2G scam, as he had ample opportunities to do so. “All matters of importance goes to the PM. All the bucks stop on the desk of the PM. In fact, then commerce minister Kamal Nath wrote to the PM expressing concern on the developments on the 2G front. Even the finance and law ministries had expressed their reservations in their respective communication to the PM,” Rai said. Both Nath and the Finance Ministry wanted a discussion on the 2G spectrum allocation policy in the Group of Ministers panel. But it never happened. Singh did nothing, allowing Raja to go ahead with the spectrum sale which he had apprised in a letter dated 2 November 2007. “Raja wrote a second letter to the then PM on 26 December 2007 to which a template response was given. This can be called as an interim response by the PM to inform that the letter has been acknowledged and a detailed letter would follow. From 26 December 2007 to 10 January 2008, the day of auction, the PM did nothing. During this period he could have stopped the process,” Rai said. Not going much into the role of the PM, the former CAG felt that Singh’s hands were perhaps tied by the “compulsion of coalition politics” as the telecom portfolio was handled by the DMK. “If the PM had put his foot down, the fate of UPA 2 could have been different. The 2008 process was a faulty one where goal posts were shifted. It could have been any other process other than first come, first serve,” Rai said. The former chief auditor said that it was Dayanidhi Maran, who was in charge of telecom ministry before A Raja, who wanted spectrum pricing out of the GoM’s review and his request was granted by the PM. Talking about the pressure they faced, Rai said, “There was no amount of pressure that could have stopped us from the getting the truth.” He admitted that there was ample support from the media and judiciary. “Even the the Congress MPs accepted that our findings were reasonable but did not agree with the computation,” he said. Soon after the 2G report was out in public domain, Singh had criticised Rai for allegedly over-stepping his mandate by getting into policy matters. “I gave a point-by-point reply to the three points that he had raised,” he said. The former CAG also denied that he had leaked any information to the media. “My mandate is to conduct performance audit. Why should a CAG leak his concerns? My interactions with PM were always gracious. The media made out it to be a war,” Rai said. Why did the coal scam happen? This was another scam, which the former CAG felt, the then PM could have prevented. “Former coal secretary PC Parakh had actually warned the PM that the screening process of firms for coal blocks was actually leading to windfall gains for some firms. During that period, the coal ministry was with the PM and he did pay much heed to the secretary’s words,” Rai said. The former CAG said that while the draft report on the coal blocks allocation was made he had also apprised the government of the faults. “I had met then finance minister (now President Pranab Mukherjee) and informed him about the situation. The finance minister immediately acknowledged the importance of the matter and took me to the PM along with him. We had together explained him about the fallout of the screening process,” Rai said. “In fact, 56 out 57 coal blocks that were allocated after 2005 remained unused. You cannot sit with a coal block when the power crisis in the country is so serious. Power production has coal and fuel linkages,” the former CAG said. “The intention of audit reports is not to disrupt the government but to take corrective steps,” Raid said. Commonwealth Games scam: How Suresh Kalmadi was made all-powerful This is another scam which the then prime minister could have again stopped but he did not for reasons best known to him, said Rai. “India had sent a huge 139-member to the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne to study the organising process of these games. This team was sent under the leadership of Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi,” the former CAG said. According to Rai, the late sports minister Sunil Dutt had strongly protested empowering Kalmadi as the head of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee. Even latter sports ministers Mani Shankar Aiyar and MS Gill were not comfortable with Kalmadi heading the OC. However, the then PM Manmohan Singh ignored every suggestion including that that of a ministerial panel and went ahead to appoint Kalmadi as the OC chief. “The problem is the Indian Olympic Association which Kalmadi was then heading was not accountable to the government. The appointment was incorrect in form and in substance as he had the money of the exchequer to exploit without accountability. If someone accountable to the government or Parliament like the sports minister had been made the chief this scam might not have occurred,” Rai said. The CWG sam report was tabled in Parliament on 5 August 2011. What made Air India buy so many planes? On 2 August 2004, then civil aviation minister Praful Patel had allegedly forced Air India to buy more planes when it was in need of only 28 planes. This resulted in the carrier buying 68 planes instead of 28 at a whopping cost of Rs 38,000 crore. This is largely seen as one of major reasons that pushed the national airline into the red. “Earlier we had written in the report that the then civil aviation minister had nudged Air India to buy more planes keeping the long run in mind. But this sent the civil aviation ministry officials into a tizzy and they came to my office and interacted at all levels to remove the word. We finally did that,” Rai said. “In fact, the finance ministry had objected to the purchase calling it a supply driven contract. Worse was 97 percent of the spending was a debt. And what happened today? Many of those aircraft were sold off in five years. Given the open sky policy we have, it was obvious that Air India would bleed,” the former CAG said. Referring to another book written by a retired Air India official, the retired auditor said that minister had actually “ordered” and not “nudged” the airline to buy the extra aircraft. Rai said he was not aware if Patel’s intent was to indulge in corruption scam but he maintained that the inflated purchase had definitely hurt the airline very deeply. You can read the full text of the interview here