News Karnataka
Friday, March 29 2024
Cricket
India

Government rejects ‘conflict of interest’ charge against CAG Mehrishi

Photo Credit :


New Delhi: The Central government on Monday rejected allegation of “conflict of interest” levied by the Congress party against CAG Rajiv Mehrishi over the audit agency’s proposed report on the Rafale deal, saying he never dealt with expenditure proposals from the Ministry of Defence as Finance Secretary.

The development comes a day after the Congress party accused Mehrishi of committing “gross impropriety” by auditing the Rafale deal, saying as the Finance Secretary he was involved in the deal announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2015.

The CAG report is likely to be tabled in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Mehrishi had joined the Department of Economic Affairs under the Ministry of Finance as Secretary in October 2014.

As the senior-most Secretary among the five secretaries of the Ministry at that time, he was designated as the Finance Secretary on November 11, 2014. He continued as Secretary (Economic Affairs) and Finance Secretary till August 2015 when he demitted office.

In a statement on Monday evening, the Ministry said: “Secretary (Economic Affairs) as Finance Secretary doesn’t deal with expenditure proposals from the Ministry of Defence; rather it is Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, which deals with financial sanctions relating to all the ministries of the government of India.”

“To claim that Secretary (Economic Affairs) as Finance Secretary would have dealt with the expenditure proposals from the Ministry of Defence is totally a figment of imagination and stretch of facts.”

Share this:
MANY DROPS MAKE AN OCEAN
Support NewsKarnataka's quality independent journalism with a small contribution.

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 0 / 5. Vote count: 0

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

To get the latest news on WhatsApp