Inquiry to be conducted into CAG’s report: Pallam Raju

NEW DELHI - Minister of State for Defence, Pallam Raju, said on Wednesday here that an inquiry will be conducted following the findings of the Comptroller Auditor General’s (CAG) report. That pointed out a lot of irregularities in every stage of the procurement process, and the poor quality of food rations being served to army personnel.

Raju said that if there were any aberration that has been commented upon by CAG an inquiry would definitely be conducted to make sure where the lapses were.

“It is the endeavour of the government and the commitment of Anthonyji (Defence Minister A. K. Anthony) to make sure that good quality of rations are supplied to the troops that are in the forward areas and the operational areas, and we are taking good measures to make sure that the quality food is of high standard and it is of nutritional value. So this must be aberration that must have occurred but nevertheless, an inquiry will be conducted into lapses on such issues,” said Raju.

Rekha Gupta, the Additional Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General, on Tuesday in the Performance Audit report of Defence mentioned about the irregularities in the procurement process.

“We found that the annual provisioning was carried out on a normative base rather on the basis of reliable data, actual opening stock, and feeding strength. There was significant under-procurement of most items except for sugar, which was substantially over-procured. We found that food items were being issued after the expiry of the estimated storage life and extension was granted routinely in almost all cases. As regards fresh rations, we found serious absence of competitive procurement processes. Further in all cases of fresh rations the accepted rates were way below the average local market rates,” said Gupta.

She further said that irregularities have been found in the quantities received by the personnel. They differed from what had been shown to be issued.

The report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. (ANI)