New Delhi, April 28: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has, in a draft report on 2G scam, strongly indicted former Telecom Minister A Raja and came down heavily on the PMO and the Cabinet Secretariat for not taking “corrective action” while not sparing even the Prime Minister for “some unfortunate omissions”.
The report circulated by PAC Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi, which is most likely to be contested by members of the ruling UPA, is also understood to have attacked the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram for recommending to the Prime Minister to “treat the matter as closed” instead of taking against those responsible for loss to the exchequer.
The voluminous report reportedly had some unpleasant words for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had kept his office at “arm’s length” in 2G spectrum issue which helped Raja “to execute his unfair, arbitrary and dubious designs”.
The report says the Prime Minister on January three, 2008 wanting to keep the PMO at “arm’s length” seemed to have given an “indirect green signal” to Raja to go ahead and “execute his unfair, arbitrary and dubious designs”.
The controversial distribution of licences and spectrum was taken by the DMK representative in the Cabinet on January 10, 2008, which the CAG had estimated a presumptive revenue loss of over Rs 1.76 lakh crore.
The report, which will come up for consideration at tomorrow’s meeting, said the PMO certainly either failed to see the “forebodings or was rendered a mute spectator”.
The committee said it was highly perturbed to note that the considered and imperative advise given by the Prime Minister and genuine concerns expressed by him on the developments in the telecom sector in his November 2007 letter to Raja was “just disregarded” by him.
“The Prime Minister was in fact misled when he was informed by the minister (Raja) that the issue of auction of spectrum was considered but not recommended by the Telecom Commission and also not recommended by TRAI. The minister was saying half truth, concealing the other half, concealing his ulterior design,” the report said.
In its criticism of the PMO, the report said the PMO’s reply that no suggestion of the Law Minister to set up an Empowered Group of Ministers was received by them does not convince the committee.
“…The PMO was very much aware of Law Minister’s suggestions but the counter view of the Communication Minister got overriding preference to the Law Minister’s view for some unknown reasons and thus no effort was made by the PMO to initiate the process of constitution of the EGoM.
“The PMO certainly either failed to see the forebodings or was rendered a mute spectator,” the report said.
The committee found that the procedures followed by
the DoT for issuance of 157 licences in 2007-08 smacked of serious
irregularities leading to staggering loss to the exchequer.
Its examination has revealed gross violation of established norms, rules and procedures, dereliction of duties on the part of the ministries and departments concerned, scant regards bordering on contempt for considered suggestions and opinions of the people and organisations that matter.
The scrutiny revealed the flip flop in implementation of the UASL regime which was approved by the Cabinet in 2003 based on the recommendations of the TRAI.
The committee found that in the process of issuing licences devising an efficient allocation formula for allocation of spectrum along with an appropriate price remained unachieved.
Delinking the price of spectrum from the issue of licences was a given a go by disregarding the Cabinet decision.
The committee was deeply distressed that due to violation of Cabinet decision and as a consequence of such deliberate omission, the issue of UAS licence and allocation of spectrum in 2007-08 at the price discovered in 2001 caused a staggering but wholly avoidable revenue loss.
Considering what happened in the spectrum allocation under Raja, the report recommended a strong system of monitoring and compliance of Cabinet decisions and firmly putting in place by revisiting the transaction of business rules in order to ensure that the Cabinet decisions are implemented in letter and spirit and no undue advantage be taken of the systemic loopholes by the “ravenous fly-by-night operators” created as front companies by unscrupulous elements.
On the telecom department overruling the views and concerns of the finance ministry, the committee said it was startled to observe the manner in which the then Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran succeeded in getting revised the terms of reference of the GoM issued by the Cabinet Secretariat under the PMO in November 2006 excluding the matter of spectrum pricing from the purview of finance ministry and leaving it solely to DoT to decide.
The committee was shocked that as required under transaction of business rules, modification in the Cabinet decisions of October 2003 was never brought before the Cabinet even for ex-post facto approval.
“The DoT owes explanation for such a gross dereliction of duty. The Cabinet Secretary and the PMO knew about these developments but did not take corrective action,” it said.
–PTI–