CAG report likely to omit Rafale pricing in absolute numbers

The pricing of the Rafale jet fighter deal is likely to be mentioned in redacted form — which is without absolute numbers and with variables such as x, y and z — in the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report.

Sources said the report might be tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, but Parliament’s schedule of business did not have it at the time of going to press.

The report will also be on 10 other capital acquisitions by the Air Force, sources said. It will be in two volumes, with one of them dealing with the 10 acquisitions and the other one on the Rafale deal.

However, the two volumes will be in one copy. Sources said the CAG had sent its report to President Ram Nath Kovind and the finance ministry. The ministry will prepare a brief on the report and send it to the president, who will then give instructions for it to be tabled in Parliament. The current session of Parliament, which is the last of the 16th Lok Sabha, will end on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the government reiterated on Monday there was no conflict of interest in Rajiv Mehrishi being CAG and former economic affairs, as alleged by the Congress. The statement said it was pertinent to point out that the department of expenditure dealt with financial sanctions relating to all the central ministries.

In that capacity, any files relating to defence procurement would be dealt with by the secretary, department of expenditure, and not the economic affairs secretary. “To claim that the secretary (economic affairs) as finance secretary would have dealt with the expenditure proposals from the defence ministry is totally a figment of imagination and stretch of facts,” the ministry said.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Sunday had said in the case of CAG Mehrishi, there was the case of conflict of interest.

How could Mehrishi “investigate himself” since he had been Union economic affairs secretary when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Rafale deal in April 2015, Sibal asked. "The same CAG was involved in harming national security when the deal was struck in 2015. The same CAG will present the report,” noted the former union minister. After leaving the finance ministry, Mehrishi was appointed Union home secretary in August 2015 before he took charge as CAG in September last year.

On Sunday, Union minister Arun Jaitley had refuted the allegations of Sibal.

The Rafale issue was raised before the Supreme Court, which did not find any substance in the allegations.

However, the issue has continued to rock Parliament with Congress President Rahul Gandhi accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of aiding industrialist Anil Ambani.

Modi would have been “number one accused” in the Rafale issue had the Lokpal law been implemented, the Congress on Monday said, as the opposition targeted the government in the Lok Sabha on the fighter jet deal.