Shillong: After kicking dust over CAG's adverse comments on the Centaur Hotel sale deal, Union Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie today (Feb 21, 2004) said he would write to Comptroller and Auditor General V M Kaul clarifying his stand but advocated against abolishing the institution.

"Whenever we have differences, we are free to explain our position. When I go back, I will write to the CAG (explaining the Ministry's position). I have high regards for Kaul," he told reporters.

Shourie, who yesterday apologised for terming as "idiotic" the computation of notional loss in the deal, said he had used a "strong word" which he had taken back later.

"Now I am using the word peculiar (to describe the calculations)."

Asked if he felt this type of computation of notional loss also occurred in other reports of CAG, which eventually created problems for State Governments and Central Ministries, Shourie said, "I don't know. This has happened for the first time with us."

The CAG had made adverse comments about the Centaur Hotel deal saying that the Government would suffer losses of about Rs 145 crore because of lowering of lease rent from six per cent to two per cent prior to selling the hotel property.

However, he supported continuation of the institution of CAG. "Why should it be abolished? If one staff makes an error, it does not reflect on the whole institution. It should stay."

Shourie said he did not subscribe to the view of not tabling the CAG report in State Legislatures as practised in some of the States. "The reports should automatically go to the Assemblies."