NEW DELHI: In a move that may mark a thaw in its ties with the government, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has discontinued mid-course the controversial audit of Padma awards. The move is likely to gladden the home ministry that had objected to any such scrutiny.

Overruling objections from his director general of central expenditure, CAG Vinod Rai has asked his audit team to suspend glossing over oversight on part of the government in conferring the prestigious civilian awards, some of which in the recent past had triggered widespread debate.

The move comes immediately after Rai was made to appear before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the 2G scam, and questioned by UPA-II members on his mandate to put a figure to the “presumptive loss” of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in the allocation of 2G spectrum licences.

The CAG was repeatedly summoned before the JPC in the past few months and subjected to extensive grilling, at times to his discomfiture where he had to invoke his Constitutional standing seeking to be spared such embarrassment.

Rai has not only stopped the audit mid-course, but has also used this as an argument before the JPC that despite strong objections from his team he has overruled the exercise. CAG has the discretion to take a final call on matters of internal differences.

The CAG has told his audit team to desist from temptation to audit controversial issues as that would only cause functional problems between the government and the official auditor.

“Are we not required to chase the rupee? Is there not enough expenditure in other sectors requiring our attention? Aren’t there enough procedural irregularities which need our urgent attention and advice? If there are, then I would feel that we need not fritter our human resources on issues which cannot be defined as core issue,” the CAG’s office wrote to DG audit of central expenditure Roy Mathrani, asking him to give up audit of Padma awards.

Earlier, the Union home ministry was engaged in exchange of letters, contesting the mandate of the apex auditor to go through the selection procedures in short listing nominees for the Padma awards.

Though, the home ministry was amendable to let the auditor look into only financial matters relating to the award, the CAG had insisted on a compliance audit and sought all files pertaining to the selection procedures followed in each case.

The matter was taken up with the home secretary when other channels of communication were exhausted and the ministry had refused to part with “secret files”. The CAG audit team which had done “extensive background work” on the awards, argued in vain with Rai, citing even a SC observation that “the government guidelines on the Padma awards are amenable to abuse and are wholly unsatisfactory”.