Not Just an Accountant

Title: Not Just an Accountant – The Diary of the Nation’s Conscience Keeper

Author: Vinod Rai

Publisher: Rupa, 2014 (First)

ISBN: 9788129134615

Pages: 267

When Indians voted in the 2014 general elections, the result was on expected lines. Anyone with even a cursory grasp of the political situation in the country was confident that the ruling coalition would bite the dust. The antagonism was a consequence to exposure of blatant corruption in the government led by Manmohan Singh, India’s foremost economist. Though himself a man of unimpeachable integrity, his clout in the party and government was extremely weak. He owed his place as prime minister solely due to his docility and subservience to the whims of the Nehru family who saw in him nothing more than a presentable figure good for keeping the seat warm till Rahul Gandhi, the youngest scion of the dynasty, could cut his political teeth. Ministers in the alliance parties treated him as a man to be respected and seen to be obeyed, but never to take seriously in their own decision-making process. Huge deals involving financial swindling came to light in the ten years Singh presided over the administration. Some of it included the 2G spectrum scandal, coal-block allocation scam, the Commonwealth Games deals, allocation of natural gas exploration blocks and purchase of unnecessary aircraft for the national carrier, Air India. The money wasted in these shocking scams ran into tens of thousands of crores of rupees. The investigations into some of the deals are still on. These irregularities saw the light of the day through performance audits conducted by the supreme audit institution in India – the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). Vinod Rai was the CAG at that time, who stood with his courage and conviction against pressure from all quarters. Rai is a former IAS officer of Kerala cadre who served as the CAG of India for five years from 2008 to 2013. He is widely considered as the symbol of the anti-corruption movement and is credited with having turned the office of CAG into a powerful force for accountability and transparency in contemporary India. This book is his reminiscences of the days when he exposed the black deals involving politicians.

Rai gives a brief narration of his career in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in various capacities in the states as well as the centre. These chapters are quite interesting to the readers before the main action begins as the CAG, at which point it loses its appeal. The book is very particular in introducing the relevance of that constitutional position. The government auditor, or CAG, provides a critical link between the executive, parliament and the larger community of citizens. His objective is to draw the attention of the executive to the loopholes, lacunae, the acts of omission and any violation of established policy guidelines (p.35). The author also examines the types and differences of audit such as financial audit, compliance audit and performance audit, the third one only the CAG is allowed to conduct. There is a discontinuity in the narration here. From his days in the IAS, the story is catapulted straight into life as the CAG. Here too, the actions and analyses are sidelined to reply to some of the criticisms faced by the final audit report. The bureaucrat in the author rears his head when he takes askance at the Media running news stories on reports supposedly leaked from the auditor’s office, whereas he advocates transparency and scrutiny for all departments of the executive.

2G scam rocked Indian politics in 2011. Licenses were reportedly issued to telecom operators on first-come-first-serve basis and foul play was suspected in receiving requests from the companies. A full disclosure of the nuances of the audit is given by the author. Each license, worth around 8000-9000 crores, was allotted for a paltry sum of Rs. 1658 Crores. The total loss to the exchequer is estimated at Rs. 1.76 lakh crores. Such an astronomical figure was the butt of intense criticism from sections supportive of the government. However, the author reminds us that while the fact of loss to the nation can hardly be denied, the quantum of loss can be debated. The CBI pegged the loss at Rs. 30000 crores, which itself is a startlingly large figure. Rai specifically remarks that Manmohan Singh was indeed aware of what was going on, but preferred to look the other way and adopt a hands-off approach at this naked loot of the country. A separate chapter is reserved for each scandal.

This book is tiresome to read on account of the uninspiring form of narration. Instead of detailing the clever ways in which foul play was allowed to go on, the author chooses to list out arguments in favour of the findings and calculations arrived at in the report. A large share is reserved to reply to allegations of the CAG’s partisanship. As such, the description descends to the readability of an affidavit a party submits before a court of law. The final chapter lets out some homilies on the way forward for a new India of the GenNext. Excellence in every sphere of activity, accountability in responsible institutions and probity in all walks of life are recommended by Rai as the leading beacons of the society.

This book is graced with a Foreword by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, former President of India and a luminary of twenty-first century India. He exhorts the readers to instill righteousness in the heart which translates to beauty in character. In a nutshell, it characterizes this book about accountability, transparency and ethics in administration and leadership. Extensive reproductions of dates, figures and bureaucratic reports turn the readers away from the main thread. The last nail in the coffin is the presence of several appendices running into 45 pages that are nothing but photocopies of letters and memos sent by various ministries.

The book is not recommended.

Rating: 2 Star