A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), into 11 defence deals including the one for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets, has been submitted to the President and the government. It has been reported that the report may have side-stepped the controversial offset aspect of the deal. The opposition alleges that the old deal was scrapped and a new one signed, so as to benefit Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence. A government official said, “The draft report on the offset deals is ready and it has been sent to the ministry of defence for its comments, which are awaited. Once the comments are received, the final report will be prepared. The final audit report on offset deals may come after the elections.”
The report has been divided into two sections - one pertaining to 10 acquisitions and the second, exclusively on Rafale. Titled 'Capital Acquisitions of the Air Force', the report looks at major procurements over five years. The second sections reportedly focuses on the contentious pricing aspect of the Rafale aircraft deal. The government source said, “The report contains a comparative analysis of Rafale's pricing vis-à-vis the initial plan to buy 126 jets, including 18 in flyaway condition. The NDA government decided to buy only 36 Rafale jets, all in flyaway condition.” Scrapping of the original deal during the previous UPA regime, by the NDA has become controversial.
A CAG official has said that the comparative analysis has been done in percentage terms; the actual comparative price of the jet was mentioned in the report but was redacted. They said, “The redaction has been done on the request of the defence ministry which cited national security as well as the confidentiality clause of the deal with the French government. There have been many other CAG reports where sensitive information has been redacted earlier too.” Submission of the report comes a day after the Congress demanded that Comptroller and Auditor General Rajiv Mehrishi recuse himself from auditing the deal as he was the finance secretary when the deal was renegotiated.
The Finance Ministry, however, refuted the allegations and said Mehrishi never dealt with expenditure proposals from the defence ministry. It released a statement saying, “To claim that finance secretary would have dealt with the expenditure proposals from the ministry of defence is totally a figment of imagination and stretch of facts.”
