In a report that could snowball into a major controversy, the Comptroller and Auditor General on Friday said that the sale of two Centaur hotels took place without the benefit of competition and valuation, and the reserve prices in these transactions were not consistent with the practice followed by divestment ministry in other cases.
A day after former divestment minister Arun Shourie asserted that no wrong was done in the divestment of Juhu Centaur, CAG said in its report presented to Parliament that "the efforts made to balance the need and urgency to sell the properties and to obtain the best possible price from the sale were not evident."
In a severe criticism of the procedure and valuation process, it said "sale transactions of two hotels, Juhu Centaur and Airport Centaur, were finalised on the basis of single bids without the benefit of competition.
"Assumptions made during valuation of the properties and fixation of reserve price of Airport Centuar were not consistent with the practice followed by the ministry in other cases. Repeated extensions and relaxation were allowed to the bidder of Juhu Cenaur to facilitate the sale," it observed.
The report came within two days of Shourie coming under attack in Parliament on sale of the Juhu hotel property to Ajit Kerkar's Tulip for Rs 153 crore (Rs 1.53 billion) with Finance Minister P Chidambaram taking a dig at the former divestment minister, saying he took an 'active interest' in the transaction and that the government would await the CAG report on it.
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