NEW DELHI:

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has dropped audit of the alleged Rs 3,000 crore online tender scam in Madhya Pradesh under the previous BJP government.The CAG office in Bhopal recently conveyed to its headquarters in Delhi that it could not get relevant documents — which allegedly showed the e-tendering process of various government projects was compromised to benefit select private players — from state departments, a few officials of the audit body told ET.The said documents are in the possession of a court hearing the alleged scam, they said.Last September, ET had exposed a nexus between bureaucrats and businessmen that is suspected to have led to rigging of online bidding of various projects of the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, leading to widespread political outcry.Chouhan ordered the economic offence wing to probe the scam. EOW, however, registered a preliminary enquiry instead of an FIR in the case.Around November 2018, CAG approached the principal secretary of the science and technology department for carrying out an audit of MP State Electronic Development Corporation that organised online bidding for government projects.MPSEDC, in turn, sought a view on the issue from EOW which by then had collected documents from them and others for investigation, CAG insiders said.CAG also requested EOW to hand over the voluminous e-evidence for forensic examination, a senior auditor told ET on the conditions of anonymity.EOW, which swung into action only after Congress came to power in MP in December and lodged an FIR on April 10 this year, told CAG’s Bhopal office that the documents asked for were in the possession of a local court, said the auditor cited earlier.Director General (in-charge) of EOW Sushovan Banerjee told ET that certain documents relating to the same are in the possession of a court.