The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (PAC) has formed a sub-committee to look into the public private partnership (PPP) projects in the country.

The sub-committee has been asked to submit a report ahead of the winter session of Parliament scheduled in November.

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Shantaram Naik will be the convenor of the sub-committee.

Senior MPs P Venugopal, Bhartruhari Mahtab, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Nishikant Dubey will be the members in the panel.

PAC Chairman KV Thomas told BusinessLine that the sub committee has been asked to expedite the process of drafting a report within one month.

“It is an important issue. The sub-committee will meet various stakeholders and will draft a report. The main committee will study it and take a view ahead of the winter session,” Thomas added.

Naik told BusinessLine that the sub-committee will invite Ministries such as Finance, Defence, Highways and Railways for an interaction on the issue.

“Lakhs of crores of public money is being spent by private parties in the name of PPPs. We need a legislation to regulate the use of public money through private companies. Our effort will be to evolve a mechanism to deal with this,” Naik said.

PAC chairmen and Comptroller and Auditor Generals in the past have been demanding a more proactive role for the CAG in auditing PPPs.

“Look at the issue of revenue sharing in spectrum. There is no audit and the Centre has to go by the figures submitted by private companies. This has to be changed,” Thomas said.

The PAC had considered PPPs in spectrum, airports, ports, hydrocarbon production sharing agreements and in highways. Thomas had told BusinessLine in an interview recently that PPP formulas were fundamentally wrong.

In the case of KG basin, Thomas said the expenditure is calculated according to the contractor’s formula.

“Same is the case of PPPs in airports. PPPs should have a clarity and transparency,” he said.

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