The Aam Aadmi Party government will not take any action on the basis of draft audit report (DAR) of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on power distribution companies of the Capital, even as the discoms have taken exception to “premature disclosure” of the report and alleged that the CAG had breached the safeguards provided in the audit norms.
The Delhi government told a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court during the hearing on a plea of two discoms on Friday that since it was not the authority to take action in the matter, it would not act on the basis of the report.
The Delhi government counsel told the Court that the CAG had only invited comments from it, which had since been sent. The CAG counsel also informed the Bench that the report had been forwarded to the Delhi government to seek its remarks.
The DAR, which reportedly stated that the discoms had inflated their previously-incurred losses, may later be forwarded to them with the instructions to give comments on the portions pertaining to them.
The Bench, comprising Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath, sought the response of the Delhi government and CAG on the interim application moved by BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna seeking restraint on CAG from sharing the report with any third party without the Court's permission.
A letter purportedly sent by CAG to the Delhi government asking the latter to maintain confidentiality of the document, as the matter pertaining to audit of discoms was sub judice, was also placed before the Court.
The Court, which is seized of a writ petition of discoms challenging the Delhi government’s decision to get their accounts audited by CAG, asked the respondents to file their reply within two weeks and fixed the next hearing in the case on September 11.
The Bench said it would also shortly deliver the judgment on the batch of petitions including appeals filed by discoms against last year’s order of the Single Judge refusing to stay the decision for CAG audit. Apart from these petitions, the verdict on a public interest litigation filed by United RWAs Joint Action (URJA) seeking clearance to CAG audit was also reserved earlier.
The DAR, running into 212 pages, has reportedly alleged that the discoms had manipulated consumer figures, bought costly power, inflated costs and suppressed revenue, besides favouring their group companies.
In their interim application, the discoms have sought recall of all copies of DAR and directions to CAG to provide them with copies of all reports prepared by it, drawn up in accordance with the audit norms, along with the break-ups of the amounts quantified, to enable them to respond to them.
The discoms functioning in the Capital are a 51:49 per cent joint venture between the private companies and the Delhi government.
The DAR, running into 212 pages, has reportedly alleged that the discoms had manipulated consumer figures, bought costly power, inflated costs and suppressed revenue, besides favouring their group companies
