Moily U-turn: CAG not doing much to plug corruption

A month after the government wanted the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to desist from challenging its policy decisions, Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily on Monday said these organisations were not doing enough to expose corruption.

A month after the government wanted the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to desist from challenging its policy decisions, Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily on Monday said these organisations were not doing enough to expose corruption.

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In a complete U-turn from the legal opinion given by his ministry in response to a query from the Telecom Ministry last month, which wanted to prevent the CAG from probing the 2G spectrum scam further, Moily said its timely intervention could have prevented scams.

“Scandals and scams are known even when they are being planned and executed. If audit draws attention to them forthwith in a well published manner, such scandals can be halted mid-stride. Postmortems are good but they can be conducted only when a patient is dead,” Moily said at a function.

He said the institution of CAG, a Constitutional body itself designed to be a bulwark against omission and commissions of the Executive under the supervision of the Legislature has not fulfilled what it was conceptualised for.

Moily also attacked former Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Pratyush Sinha, for his remarks that one-third of Indians are “utterly corrupt.”

Without naming Sinha, the minister said: “When few top officials who could have made a difference in office... having failed to do so, become saints after retirement”.