NEW DELHI: The comptroller and auditor general on Wednesday informed Delhi high court that the power companies are not cooperating with it for an audit .

The counsel for CAG made this submission before Justice Manmohan. The same bench had refused to stay the AAP government’s decision to conduct a CAG audit of the accounts of BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd, BSES Yamuna Power Ltd and NDPL’s Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd.

CAG has already made the same assertion before a division bench hearing a PIL on the issue. Justice Manmohan then asked CAG to file an application complaining about the alleged failure of discoms to cooperate and directed it to file its counter affidavit within three weeks.

While backing CAG’s powers to audit discoms, the Delhi government also denied the allegation made by the discoms that the decision to order a CAG audit was in furtherance of the election manifesto of the Arvind Kejriwal-led government.

“If there is nothing to hide then respondent 1 (Delhi government) is unable to understand the discoms’ reluctance for getting an audit done as audit is an essential tool in any democracy,” the affidavit filed in HC argues, highlighting that the government holds 49% stake in all three discoms.

Seeking dismissal of the petition filed by discoms challenging the audit, the government urged HC to direct the discoms to “cooperate fully”.

A larger bench will hear on March 24 the discoms’ plea challenging the single judge’s decision not to stay the audit.

Reacting to the stand of CAG and the state government, BSES in a statement said it is “again surprised at the stand taken by CAG counsel before HC as the audit process is going on smoothly.”