(a) Whether accounts of entities involved in public-private partnership projects are
scrutinized by Controller and Auditor General (C&AG):
(b) If so, the details thereof for the last three years:
(c) If not the reasons therefore: and
(d) The steps taken in this regard?
To be answered by Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance(SHRI NAMO NARAIN MEENA)
(a) to (c) Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects are based on a contract or concession
agreement between a Government or statutory entity on the one side and a private company on
the other side, for delivering an infrastructure service on payment of user charges. The PPP
itself is a private entity. Therefore its accounts are not automatically subject to audit by
C&AG within the framework of the Comptroller and Auditor General`s (Duties, Powers and
conditions of service) Act, 1.971. Accordingly, at present, the PPP projects are audited
like any other contract in which government is a party. However, the details for the last
three years are not readily available in the office of the C&AG.
(d) C&AG has proposed that PPP arrangements may be brought under the purview of his audit.
C&AG has also recently brought out a new set of Public Audit guidelines for PPPs in
infrastructure projects. Through these guidelines, all field audit offices under C&AG
dealing with the Union and State Governments have also been instructed to compile necessary
date of PPP projects for the purpose of planning their audit within the framework of existing
mandate of C&AG. Simultaneously, training is being imparted to the officers and staff of Indian
Audit & Accounts Department to enable them to conduct such audit.