CAG refutes ‘charge' that it did not consult RIL

The Comptroller and Auditor-General on Monday strongly refuted the charge that it did not consult private operators, including Reliance Industries Limited, before finalising its draft performance audit report on oil and gas production sharing contracts. Furthermore, the statement said, in the case of the performance audit of hydrocarbon PSC, interactive meetings were held with two operators, including RIL, prior to the finalisation of the draft performance audit report. The statement added: “This office sought the date for an exit conference for discussing the main audit findings in the draft performance audit report and subsequently a reminder was sent on June, 22, 2011 to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry. As regards sharing of the draft performance audit report with the operators, it is stated that as per the established audit methodology, the draft report is forwarded to the Ministry, and it is for the Ministry to take a view on what operator-specific points it needs to share, at this stage, with the operators.” The CAG said it had clarified to the Ministry that it might call the representatives of the operators at the time of discussion of the operator-specific points at the exit conference.