Agusta issue: PAC takes up CAG report

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, headed by senior Congress leader K.V. Thomas, has decided to take up the CAG report on the contentious Agus-taWestland issue, apart from going into over half-a-dozen other defence-related issues. The VVIP copter issue had led to a huge controversy during the recently-concluded Budget Session of Parliament with members from the Congress and the BJP sparring over the incident for days.

A bulletin issued by the Lok Sabha said that the PAC has selected these subjects based on various reports of the CAG pertaining to several ministries and departments for examining them during 2016-17.

The issue of acquisition of helicopters for VVIPs is one of the 100 subjects that the panel will examine.

At the first meeting of the newly-constituted PAC on May 18, a strong demand was made by members of the BJP for taking up the CAG report on the VVIP copter deal.

The BJP’s demand to take up the issue was supported by the BJD’s B. Mahtab, who had said that there should not be any bar on the PAC taking up even those issues that are being investigated by agencies like the CBI or those pending before the courts.

On the AgustaWestland issue, the CAG had submitted a report in August 2013, concluding that the process, from framing of quality requirements to the conclusion of the contract of the VVIP copters, differed from established procurement procedures.

The report came before the PAC of that time, which was then headed by the BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi, but it did not take up the issue.

The panel has also decided to continue with its inquiry into some aspects of the 2G scam, the Commonwealth Games scam and the issue of burgeoning non-performing assets of public sector banks, which had been gone into by the last PAC, whose term ended on April 30.

One of the 100 important issues being taken up by the panel is the UPA’s flagship MNREGA scheme which the present government has also decided to continue. Public-private-partnership projects in the Indian Railways is another subject.

Besides the 100 issues, the key parliamentary committee has also selected seven other issues on a suo motu basis, including recent developments in the telecom sector, including allocation of 2G and 3G spectrum.