With Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) providing most of the papers relating to its KG basin gas fields, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) was ready to begin audit of expenses incurred by RIL in developing the fields, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasada said. “CAG would be in a position to commence the audit in respect of the KG-D6 block,” he said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
RIL had expressed willingness to provide all details and access to the records of KG-D6 to facilitate audit by CAG, which had received most of the initial documents from the company, he added. CAG would conduct audit of production sharing contracts (PCS) for KG-D6 awarded to RIL, for 2006-07 and 2007-08, he said.
The Petroleum Ministry has asked CAG to audit the accounts of RIL after charges were levelled against the company for showing a four-fold increase in development costs ($8.8 billion) due to gold-plating.
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Besides RIL’s KG-D6 block, CAG had been asked to carry out a special audit of Cairn India’s Rajasthan block.