News Brief | November 2014
Oil Ministry says no to joint CAG audit
The petroleum ministry does not want its performance or that of its upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons to be jointly inspected with petroleum operations of Reliance Industries and Cairn India in a fresh scrutiny of the four oil and gas blocks for fiscal 2012-13. "Principal Director of Audit (PDA) may be requested to take up the audit of four blocks / fields. Audit of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Directorate General of Hydrocarbons may be taken up separately by PDA," it wrote to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) last month. The objection comes three months after the CAG informed its plan to conduct performance audit of the ministry and DGH.