CAG has not red flagged any fund diversion at SAIL: Minister

New Delhi, Feb 10 (SocialNews.XYZ) Public sector major Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has not conducted an internal inquiry against any of its officials for alleged diversion of funds to different banks for quid pro quo, as neither the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) nor its statutory auditors have raised a red flag, Parliament was informed on Monday.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said: "SAIL has further informed that there have been no adverse comments raised by audit (CAG/Statutory Auditors), therefore, no internal inquiry conducted against any officials for diverting the funds to different banks for quid pro quo."

He also said that SAIL had dealings with the scheduled commercial banks listed in the second schedule of the Reserve Bank of India Act for conducting financial transactions.

"SAIL had received all its funds and made all the payments through State Bank of India (SBI). Therefore, wherever the funds were transferred for investment, the same were transferred from SBI," the reply said.

According to Pradhan, the last investment was made by SAIL in March 2015, which matured in March 2016. Thereafter, no investment was made as surplus funds were not available with SAIL for investment.

The latest data provided by the Minister to Parliament showed that in 2014-15, the company deposited its surplus cash of Rs 2,000 crore with the public sector IDBI Bank, and no surplus amount was deposited in private sector banks.

Similarly, both in 2012-13 and 2013-14, the company had deposited its surplus cash only with public sector banks.

Source: IANS