RIL agreeable to D6 audit, says Moily

Reliance Industries has agreed to an audit of its KG-D6 gas block for the three years ending March, without prejudice to its rights under the production sharing contract, petroleum minister Veerappa Moily said on Tuesday.

In Rajya Sabha, Moily said the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India had not asked his ministry to withhold approvals to RIL. “CAG has recommended that pending complete submission of all supporting records by the operators of PMT and KG-D6 relating to expenditure up to 2011-12, the ministry may examine all relevant issues closely and carefully before considering the desirability of further approvals of capital expenditure”, he said. CAG wants the ministry to verify that government’s financial interests have not been affected.

Moily said the government had directed the contractor to give access to all records, accounts, documents of the block to CAG in line with the production sharing contract (PSC) and legal framework. In November 2007, CAG was requested to conduct for special audit of PSCs for eight blocks from where revenue is generated. CAG had initiated audit of 4 blocks for financial year 2006-07 and 2007-08 and filed its report in August 2011, which is under examination by Public Account Committee. In May 2012, it was decided that CAG would undertake audit for the year 2008-09 to 2011-12. A petroleum ministry statement had said RIL had raised certain apprehensions regarding this audit and expressed their desire to discuss the issue further.