Suresh Kalmadi wrested control of the Common Wealth Games from the Government, which agreed to pay the bill without questioning its demotion to an impotent observer of the broad based corruption. The expansive report of the games auditor was in Parliament today. With its sharp indictment of the Prime Minister's office and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, the report is payday for the opposition.
The BJP had demanded the resignation of Sheila Dixit because of the charges levelled against her by the Comptroller and Auditor General. The report found that the government had mismanaged hundreds of crores of money. But the chief Minister denied the fact that she had received any copy of the report, which will be presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.
Contracts were awarded with favouritism and bias for different aspects of the games. There were "constant deviations from the original scope of work which led to delays and increased costs and extra payments". The auditor concludes that in many cases when there are clear delays in achieving the milestones laid out in contracts, penalties still have not been collected.
The auditor compliments the Chief Minister on the improved appearances of Delhi roads, but states that more than 100 crores rupees were wasted in the construction of these roads. The street-scaping and beautification project was ill-conceived with a broad over-arching vision and perspective of how it could impact urban design. The report also added that the consultants were hired in an "arbitrary and non-transparent fashion" without any estimates or budgets.
Mrs. Dikshit is also questioned about her decision to allow imported street lights for some roads. According to the auditor, it had created a loss of Rs. 30 crores because the rate of the imported lights were much higher than the fair price. But the Cabinet Secretary of the Delhi Government, P K Tripathi, has anyway denied these charges.
But it is for Mr. Kalmadi that the auditor reserves the harshest judgements for Mr. Kalmadi and the government's permisiveness of his proclivity to employ the Games to bankroll people or companies that his associates and he preferred.
Mr. Kalmadi was in jail since April for corruption related to the Games. The auditor of the Organising Committee said that the payment were made in haste, with high amounts being given in cash. The auditor also added that the Committee's state of documentation was inadequate that they were unable to get an assurance about the authencity of records.
The Prime Minister's office said last week that that the bid and contract for the games, as settled by the government that preceded it, had placed Kalmadi irreversibly in charge.
In May 2003, when India bid for the games, Atal Behari Vajpayee's government was in power. The bid documents said that a government nominee would head the Committee, which was envisaged as a government-owned registered society. The Vice-Chairman would be the head of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), a position then occupied by Mr. Kalmadi. In November that year, the parent-body of the Games, the CGF, accepted India's bid. Later an "updated bid" was presented in the month of December which according to the audit "has no legal sanctity or relevance".
The bid was submitted by Mr. Kalmadi to the Sports Minister in 2004. The new language meant that the committee was set up as a non-government society that would be headed by Mr.Kalmadi, not a government nominee. He later wrote to the Prime Minister, stating that he should be made Chairperson of the Organising Committee, while the Minister of Sports would be Chairperson of a Steering Committee of Ministers who would oversee the games.
The Organising Committee had a 15 member-board, with only nominees each of Central government and Delhi government. Mr. Kalmadi had reduced the role and control of the government; but its financial commitments were left unaffected.
Reported by
AR
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