2G scam: Summon CAG before PAC, demands Congress MP

In a bid to take the sting out of Opposition attack in the 2G scam, a Congress PAC member has demanded summoning of the CAG following reports that he overruled his junior's report pegging the loss at Rs2,645 crore, much lower than presumptive loss of Rs1.76 lakh crore.

In a letter to Murli Manohar Joshi, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and BJP veteran, Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam has asked him to summon before the PAC Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai, his deputy Rekha Gupta, and DG, Audit RP Singh who had pegged the losses at Rs2,645 crore.

He said questioning of CAG officials should be the sole agenda for the meeting to allow members of the committee to "comprehend" the matter and decide on the future course of action.

The committee is meeting tomorrow where Nirupam is likely to raise the issue.

The PAC draft report on 2G scam had criticised P Chidambaram, then Finance Minister, and raised questions on the PMO on first-come first-serve basis policy in allocating the radiowaves.

The report was returned to Joshi by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar as it was not adopted by the entire committee.

It also needs to be asked as to "what was the reason the CAG chose to calculate presumptive losses at Rs1.76 lakh crore" and "why did the CAG discourage RP Singh, who conducted the audit on 2G, from seeking comments from the Department of Telecommunication that he wanted to include in the final report," Nirupam wrote in his October 5 letter.