Khemka meets CAG, wants name cleared in warehousing tender issue

NEW DELHI: IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who had exposed several irregularities in the land deals of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra in Haryana, has urged Comptroller and Auditor General Shashi Kant Sharma to get his name cleared in the Haryana Warehousing Corporation issue before his central deputation.
The CAG has audited the state government departments, part of which is performance audit of Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC).As the then managing director, Khemka was alleged to have changed the terms of reference of a Rs 9 crore tender at the time of pre-bid conference.
Khemka met the CAG on July 2 and requested that he should be given an opportunity of being heard before finalizing the performance audit report of the corporation.
Sources said CAG has written to the state’s principal accountant general to make sure Khemka gets an opportunity to participate in the exit conference before the audit report is finalised. It is believed that the Haryana office of the CAG has also written to the state government conveying the CAG’s directive.
In a letter to the state’s additional chief secretary, the CAG has requested that Khemka be given an opportunity to explain his position in the exit interview of the department which will be held after receipt of replies to the draft report.
"The state government is requested to inform Ashok Khemka accordingly for attending the exit conference under intimation of this office," the CAG said in its letter.
The date of the exit interview has not been finalized yet as the CAG is yet to get replies from the state government on its draft report.
Khemka’s name has been cleared for central deputation and he is believed to be set to join the PMO. Earlier the PMO was embroiled in a controversy when it had appointed former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman Nripendra Misra. The government had to amend TRAI rules to regularize his appointment as principal secretary to the PM.
Khemka’s meeting with the CAG is probably an attempt to avoid any future controversy in case the auditor raised issues such as violation of tender guidelines in the state warehousing corporation.