Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said Wednes-day that the CAG had not exceeded its jurisdiction. “I am making it clear I don’t think the CAG is exceeding its jurisdiction (as) the basic responsibility of the CAG is to identify if there is any lapse,” Mr Mukherjee said at the economic editors conference.
The finance minister noted that a CAG report wasn’t the final word: it had to be examined by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, when gave its recommendations.
The minister noted the CAG was a constitutional body and “as far as my knowledge (goes)... the job of the CAG is only to find out financial irregularities ... in the context of rules, laws and regulations laid down by the government”. He pointed out that “if out of 100, in 98 cases the government has done the correct things, they will ignore it. They just pick up only those two things where some irregularities have taken place”.