Indias governance in the pits, says CAG Vinod

HYDERABAD: In a withering sequence of observations on governance and the quality of the current bureaucracy, comptroller and auditor-general (CAG) Vinod Rai stunned cadets at the National Police Academy on Tuesday by declaring that the credibility of the government is at its “lowest ebb” with decision making rendered a “casualty”.Delivering the annual Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel lecture at the academy which trains the nation’s police officers, Rai directed sharp criticism at the quality of governance currently."We have chief ministers and Union cabinet ministers who have had to resign or have been sent to jail. Our MPs have been indicted by the judiciary for wrongdoing."He was equally unsparing of the bureaucracy which, he said, was complicit in this collapse of standards.“Members of the IPS and other administrative services have been guilty of being spectators to the malefeasance practised by governments. Some officers have allowed themselves to be used,” he said.In comments to reporters after the lecture, the nation’s chief auditor, who recently stood by his predecessor’s astronomical estimate (1.76 lakh crore) of the loss due to the 2G spectrum scam, said he has written a letter to Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Murli Manohar Joshi stating his willingness to appear before the committee to explain the CAG’s auditing method by which it arrived at the figure.He, however, refused to comment on a letter written by RIL to the PAC alleging that the CAG has not taken its views into consideration while preparing the report that indicted the company for violation of contract relating to the showpiece KG-D6 gas exploration block in the K-G basin.