NEW DELHI, Feb. 26 (UPI) — State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. has appointed global reservoir consultant DeGolyer & McNaughton to audit the wells it will drill.

ONGC has taken this decision to avoid criticism that it has been deviating from its exploration and production expertise activities.

A company spokesman said the decision to appoint a third-party consultant to audit its wells was taken in view of the growing competition in the oil and gas sector.

The consultant was also appointed to avoid incidents of high input costs on exploratory wells. To deal with such situations, ONGC decided to appoint a third-party audit system, he said.

“The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry had in January this year given us a suggestion to adopt third-party audit system,” the spokesman said.

He said following detailed discussion on the matter, an apex committee of the government-controlled oil and gas giant OK’d D&M as the third-party auditor.

ONGC has said it is committed to the highest principles of corporate governance. It said the move to hire was to increase transparency.

“AS A politician I have never sought the public eye for its own sake,” Gordon Brown proclaimed yesterday, highlighting his pride in being a man of substance over style.

But observers thought his aides had taken this sentiment a little far when the would-be Prime Minister’s face was obscured by a misplaced autocue stand for the most important speech of his political life.

At both sides of the lectern, Mr Brown was flanked by two clear screens that partly hid his made-over face and new hairstyle. When the Chancellor took questions from the journalists, the first was from the BBC’s Nick Robinson, who said: “I can’t see you, can you see me?”

Broadcasters grumpily reported that they had been told to place the cameras at that angle by Mr Brown’s apparatchiks. Even the assembled journalists in the aptly named Imagination Gallery in central London could not see Mr Brown over the heads of the Labour supporters.

Lindsay McGarvie, of media training and public relations firm McGarvie Morrison Media, said the message had literally been overshadowed by the screens. “It was unfortunate that the speech was marred by the technical glitches and autocue. But it was a speech where Brown was making it clear he was more interested in substance rather than presentation and style. The reality is a lot of commentators will focus on that autocue.”

Neil Rafferty, a political public relations experts, said the autocue glitch showed that the Brown camp was “amateurish” compared to Blair’s media machine. “The most important people in that room were not the Labour Party cheerleaders, but the camera operators. His message was clear; unfortunately our view of him wasn’t.”

Simultaneously, broadcasters were showing a split screen with Tony Blair, the master showman, at a ceremony at Wembley Stadium. It seemed even in his last days of power, Mr Blair was deemed a big enough star to divert attention away from his successor.

Despite Mr Brown’s insistence that politics “is not about celebrity”, when he is up against David “WebCam” Cameron at the next election, he will have to learn that nor is it about obscurity.

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CONVICTED prisoners are working as labourers on the West Coast mainline between England and Scotland, justice officials admitted last night.

Around 100 prisoners have worked on the line in the past year, although only seven inmates are currently involved.

The prison service in England said the work was part of the training for freedom programmes normally undertaken by inmates before their release.

It added that rigorous risk assessment was carried out before work started.

Network Rail said prisoners were not involved in attaching nuts and bolts to lines or any safety critical work.

But the revelation led to a storm of criticism last night. It was on the West Coast main line near Grayrigg, Cumbria, that a Virgin express train derailed three months ago, killing 84-year-old Scottish grandmother Margaret “Peggy” Masson and seriously injuring the driver.

The workers, all volunteers, receive the national minimum of 53.50 for ten hours.

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