A pain called the CAG.

If a man steals Rs 50 he will be arrested and remanded in custody because of his inability to put up bail money but when politicians, civil servants and businessmen collaborate to loot billions of rupees they get off scot-free. The Comptroller and Accountant General has published a report into how men posing as diamond exporters took loans from Public Sector banks against shipment of diamonds to Hong Kong and then disappeared. This resulted in a loss of Rs 5 billion over a 3 year period. TOI, 7 December. To make matters even more interesting the banks claimed their losses from the government owned insurance company, Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India which provides cover to banks against " unforeseen losses ". This company paid out 200% of their losses to 13 PSU banks. The CAG has warned that the banks may lose their credit worthiness due to lack of due diligence in customer identification. It also said that the insurance company repeatedly ignored warnings about banks' failure to update customers list. The report says that the same individuals were owners or CEOs representing more than one buyer. How were the same people able to borrow repeatedly using the same wheeze without rousing suspicion? Were bank officials and/or politicians involved? When we have to undergo the torture called KYC or Know your Customer, where we have to provide photographs, photo identity, proof of address and bank account details, to obtain a lousy bottle of cooking gas why were the identities of these people not established? The Consumer Courts are inundated with complaints about government owned insurance companies which regularly refuse to honor claims for legitimate medical expenses but here the insurance company not only reimbursed the losses but dished out double the amount claimed as if it is Santa Claus. Why? Fed up with the CAG discovering more and more financial crimes the government is planning to dilute its powers. At the moment the CAG is headed by one individual, Mr Vinod Rai who has become a hate figure because of his zeal in focusing on crime. The government wants to create a tribunal to head the organisation so that it can put its stooges in to act as Trojan horses. To counter constant criticism the CAG requested a peer review headed by the Australian National Audit Office with representatives from Canada, Denmark, Netherlands and the US. TOI, 3 December. They found that that the CAG's work " is conceptually sound " although there is a " need to strengthen it to increase the level of assurance provided to the CAG that these auditing requirements are consistently being met ". Hard to argue against such support especially as the CAG very prudently chose only " white " nations that no Indian politician will dare argue against. A really acute pain in the whatsit.