Apex auditor CAG today lamented that private telecom operators are not providing their account books to it, despite request from the government. “In the telecom sector, we have still not got access to records of private service providers despite the request for such audit coming from the government itself,” Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai said at a conference on accountants general here.
The Department of Telecom had earlier asked five leading telecom companies -? Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone Essar and state-run BSNL -? to give their accounting details for three years from 2006-07 to CAG. The move is aimed at auditing accounts of these telecom operators to ensure they paid proper revenue share to the government as per the telecom licence rules.
One can understand the inability to really perform its functions, with the highbrow attitude of their precocious officers, bein the moral guardian of all central/state govt. deptts., but what has the IT deptt been doing ? Has the CAG condescended to come down from its high altar and rather “requst” the IT deptt. to use its good offices to procure the books and do the job?