New Delhi:
Is the leak of a draft report not tabled yet by the government's auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), a breach of Parliament? Yes please, says the CAG. No, says the government. The Attorney General and the Lok Sabha Secretary General cast their vote with the government's nay.
With report after draft audit report finding its way into the public domain days before it was to be tabled in Parliament or a state Assembly, the CAG reportedly wrote to the government asking whether such leaks were a breach of Parliament. The CAG wants its reports to be treated as secret till they officially become public documents and wants to be allowed to proceed against any person who claims that he has access to a CAG draft report before it is tabled.
The Centre argues that no such action can be allowed against people who have access to leaked draft reports as there is no concept of secrecy here; the Official Secrets Act does not apply to draft audit reports, it says. It brought in the Attorney General for legal opinion. The AG says amendments to existing law would be needed to ensure that reports cannot be made public.
Not just that, the AG has also reportedly advised Vinod Rai, who is India's CAG, that the onus of preventing audit reports from being leaked lies with his department.
Last month, after the coal report was leaked the Prime Minister's Office had issued a statement quoting from a letter written by Mr Rai. He was quoted as saying, "The leak of the initial draft causes great embarrassment as the audit report is still under preparation. Such leakage causes very deep anguish."
Mr Rai's anguish has been compounded in recent times. And that of a beleaguered Congress, that heads the UPA at the Centre which has been tripped repeatedly by leaked draft CAG reports. There was the 2G report, the Commonwealth Games report, the KG Basin report, the Air India report and most recently, the coal block allocations draft report.
Today, there is a storm in Maharashtra as the BJP lashes out at the ruling Congress-NCP government over a CAG draft report that allegedly indicts former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh and nine others in land allotment deals. The report is yet to be tabled in the Assembly - it was leaked.
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