Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav yesterday charged the Comptroller and Accountant General of India (CAG) and Auditor General (AG, Bihar) with failing to discharge their constitutional obligations, resulting in the Rs 950 crore animal husbandry department (AHD) scam. Replying to an Assembly debate on the vote of account for the first four months of the financial year 1997-98, totalling Rs 4,040.53 crore, Yadav alleged the CAG and the AG are answerable for the fraudulent withdrawals.
Had the CAG and the AG informed the state government on time about the misdeeds of mafiosi active in the AHD, the scam of such magnitude could have been detected much earlier, Laloo said. The Chief Minister claimed that the entire world, including Parliament, the state legislature and the media were in know of the excessive withdrawals, but none was aware of the fact that a sizeable portion of the overdrawals was fraudulent in nature.
Amid a vociferous walkout by the entire opposition, including the JD allies - the CPI and the CPM, who termed the reply as unsatisfactory, Yadav alleged that the CAGs recent inspection report on the fodder scam was an afterthought.
Later the House passed the vote on account and the related appropriation bill by voice vote in the absence of the opposition.