By IANS,
New Delhi: Oil Minister S. Jaipal Reddy Monday said the petroleum ministry will reply in eight weeks to the draft report of the Comptroller and Auditor General regarding approval for increase in capital expenditure by RIL for developing gas fields in the Krishna Godavari basin.
The minister also said that the report was only an interim one and nobody should jump to conclusions before a complete examination of the records.
“The draft report is not a final report. The CAG would send draft reports to the ministries concerned with an open mind so that the government could give their replies with an open mind,” Reddy told reporters here.
The draft report of the CAG rapped the technical arm of the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) for allowing an increase in estimated capital expenditure by RIL from $2.4 billion to $8.5 billion between May 2004 and October 2006.
The official auditor, however, said it was difficult to comment on the reasonableness of the increase.
“If there are valid criticism made in the final report, we will not hesitate to correct ourselves or take remedial steps. But that does not mean we should jump to conclusions,” said Reddy.
Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman and senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi had attacked the government over the CAG report which allegedly accused RIL of inflating the price of developing oil and gas fields in the Krishna Godavari basin.
“The CAG examined the accounts of only 2006-07 and 2007-08. They did not look at the accounts of 2008-09 and 2009-10. They said they would look at the accounts. They themselves said in their draft report that while increasing the price was suspect they were not in a position to quantify.”
The oil minister also said the DGH had taken into account suggestions made by two consultants while agreeing to the increase in capital expenditure and that the ministry’s technical arm did not have the equipment or the expertise to calculate the figures associated with such complicated data.
Joshi had also claimed that the empowered group of ministers allowed the Mukesh Ambani-led group to charge gas at $4.2 per unit when state-run ONGC was selling the same at $1.8 per unit.
“This draft report does not make any reference to the pricing of gas,” said Reddy.
“The spectacle of an octogenarian parliamentarian hunting for headlines is not very edifying.”