New Delhi: The National Highways Authority of India has drawn CAG’s flak for the potential loss of Rs 874 crore on account of delays in completion of projects for connecting major ports through highways. The authority also incurred a revenue loss of over Rs 127 crore on account of delay in setting up special purpose vehicles (SPVs), it said. While five of the Rs 3,157 crore projects are yet to be completed, four saw delays of up to 53 months, the CAG said in its report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. “Due to ineffective toll collection operations of SPVs, toll collection was either delayed or suspended and SPVs sustained revenue loss of Rs 127.68 crore. Potential loss of toll revenue, due to delay in completion of PRC projects, worked out to Rs 873.85 crore,” the CAG said. AI gets auditor’s rap for ‘wasting’ 15cr: Air India on Tuesday came in for severe criticism from CAG for “wasteful expenditure” of over Rs 15 crore on several counts, including its failure to surrender leased premises at Heathrow airport, which has remained unused for nine years.“The lackadaisical approach in taking a firm decision resulted in a wasteful expenditure of Rs 14.30 crore,” the CAG said. ‘HAL paid 43 cr extra to staff’: CAG pulled up defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for excess payment of Rs 43 crore as incentives to its management in 2009-10 by adopting an “illogical” method of calculating its profits. ‘Governance deficit’ delaying Nalco projects, says auditor: Aluminium giant Nalco has invited criticism from CAG for possible “governance deficit” which the auditor says has resulted in many inadequacies, including delays in its Rs 4,091.51 crore second phase capacity expansion project. CAG pulls up British India Corp for flawed asset sales: Textile maker British India Corporation did not generate enough funds from asset sales due to flawed sale process and weak governance, which put “unwarranted pressure” on the government to extend a grant of Rs 147 crore over and above a rehabilitation scheme, the CAG said. ‘BEL failed to execute MTNL project’: The CAG has said that defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited has failed to execute the MTNL project for billing and customer management even five years after the scheduled date of completion, which led to blocking of Rs 144 crore for over four years. The CAG said BEL also “failed to ensure performance by its partner IBM inspite of its commitment” to the project. ‘Bokaro Power lost 15.52 cr for not meeting targets’: Bokaro Power Supply Company suffered a loss of Rs 15.52 crore due to non-fulfilment of obligations with Central Coalfields Ltd, according to a CAG report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. NTPC lost 699cr due to poor logistics plan for coal: The country’s largest power producer NTPC had to pay an excess amount of Rs 699 crore during 2008-11 due to its failure to ensure that imported coal is supplied with least transportation cost by State Trading Corporation and MMTC. PTI