2G audit was not influenced, says CAG, PAC

Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai on Wednesday rejected reports that there was pressure from Parliament's Public Accounts Committee chairman Murli Manohar Joshi to expedite audit work of 2G spectrum allocation and said no findings were ever shared with the PAC.

Joshi also dismissed as "baseless" reports that he had sought to put pressure on the CAG to expedite the audit report on allocation of 2G spectrum.

"There was no pressure from any quarter on this department with regard to the audit of the allocation of 2G spectrum," the CAG said in a statement.

"CAG has always taken a very stern view of any attempts of pressure or interference in the discharge of its constitutional duties and functions," the statement added.

The statements come in the wake of a fresh controversy that broke out with the surfacing of a letter from CAG official R B Sinha to Deputy CAG Rekha Gupta on July 13 last year which suggested that Joshi had called up a CAG official to press for expediting auditing work into spectrum allocation.

At a press conference in New Delhi, Joshi admitted that he had called Sinha to know about the status of the report but never tried to put pressure for expediting the audit.

He said the CAG had assured the PAC in its meeting on January 28, 2010 that he would submit the 2G report within the next six months.

"The committee has the right to ask the CAG where was the report he had said would be ready in six months," he said.

Joshi said he had contacted Sinha as he was appointed as the nodal officer by the CAG for the PAC.