The service records of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)Vinod Rai "are not traceable", the Department of Personnel andTraining (DoPT) has revealed in response to a Right to Information (RTI)application.
Lucknow activist Arvind Shukla had filed the RTI applicationlast month, seeking details about the most powerful accountant of the country,who has gained renown as a vigilant anti-corruption watchdog and who is onceagain in the spotlight after the CAG reports on coal block allocation, powerand the GMR-run Delhi airport were tabled in Parliament on August 17.
The 64-year-old Kerala cadre Indian Administrative Service(IAS) official's service records/dossier have gone missing from the DoPT,Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Shukla was told.
In his July 11 application, he had sought to know detailsabout Rai such as his Class 10 passing certificate, date of birth, certificateof selection to the civil services, appointment letter, selection into theKerala IAS cadre and his retirement date.
In a signed response to the RTI, the DoPT CPIO (CentralPublic Information Officer) Narendra Gautam informed Shukla that the office hasbeen "informed by the concerned section of the UPSC application dossier ofShri Vinod Rai, IAS is not traceable".
The reply further stated that "the information soughtfor by you is not materially available with the undersigned".
The DoPT also suggested that Shukla could follow up hisrequest with the Kerala government as the matter was "more closelyconcerned to the Government of Kerala".
Adding again that the department "does not have anyrecord in this regard", Gautam, an under-secretary, also stated that thematter was subsequently being also referred to CPIO, Office of the CAG, BahadurShah Zafar Marg, New Delhi, "to provide requested information".
Shukla, through an earlier RTI, had found that former UttarPradesh cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh's service records - both as atrained pilot and as a government employee - were never found.
"As part of inquisitiveness, I wanted to know about theCAG as his findings have created a storm in the country and have exposed theUPA government," Shukla said.
Sources in the DoPT say Rai's service records and dossierwere last seen in 2005 and have been missing since.
A senior official, on condition of anonymity, said:"Under all circumstances, such a dossier is always put as record with theDoPT and the fact that it is not traceable is just amazing."
India's official auditor, headed by Rai, had last weekrevealed that the lack of transparency in the allocation of coal blocks toprivate players resulted in a loss of over a whopping Rs.1.85 lakh crore to theexchequer as on March 11 last year. The report prompted the opposition todemand the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.