New Delhi: The Rs 1.76 lakh crore presumptive loss figure in CAG report on 2G spectrum allocation is set to be debated again with BJP members in JPC on the issue demanding calling of a former lead auditor on his charge that he was forced to sign the controversial report on the scam. BJP member in Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) Yashwant Sinha has written to committee chief P C Chacko demanding calling of former Director General Audit (Post and Telecommunication) in CAG R P Singh.
Sinha said members want to know who had pressurised Singh to sign the report which had put the presumptive loss to Rs 1.76 lakh crore.
Singh had recently claimed his superiors gave him a "written order" following which he signed on the final report giving a presumptive loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. "I will place the letter before the committee. Then, the members will decide on the issue," Chacko told PTI. The committee is meeting next on December 12.
Singh, who had headed the CAG team that audited the 2G spectrum allocation, maintained he had never put the figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in his draft report.
"They (senior CAG officials) told me that this is the final report and asked me through a written order to sign on it. So, I followed the instruction and signed the report," Singh had said.
When Singh had appeared before JPC on November 14, 2011, he had taken a similar stand saying the loss due to spectrum allocation was Rs 2,645 crore and he had signed the final report on the alleged scam on the direction of his superiors.
He had told the panel that quantification of loss was not part of the objectives of the CAG audit and the final figure of Rs.1.76 lakh crore was at best a "mathematical guess".
Singh told the JPC that the Rs 2,645 crore figure, calculated by him, was the actual loss based on non-revision of entry fee for telecom operators and the figure was part of the draft report. PTI