CAG drags PMO in CWG mess, faults Sheila Dikshit

New Delhi, Aug 5 (PTI) The Comptroller and Auditor
General of India (CAG) Friday dragged the Indian Prime
Minister's Office (PMO) in the CWG mess by saying that Suresh
Kalmadi, who is jail for alleged irregularities, was appointed
as Organising Committee chief at its behest in 2004 despite
"serious objections" from within government.
The auditor also blamed Delhi Chief Minister Sheila
Dikshit's "active involvement" for causing a loss of Rs 31.07
crore as it highlighted how wasteful expenditure worth several
hundred crore of rupees was caused in conduct of the CWG
through "irregularities", "favouritism" and "bias" in award of
contracts for projects.
In its voluminous 743-page report on the October 2010
Games, the CAG faulted the government for not setting up a
"single point of authority and accountability" and said there
was "lack of clear governance structure, a multiplicity of
coordination committees were created, disbanded and
reconstituted at different points of time."
Referring to Kalmadi's appointment, it said, "The (CWG)
bid document of May 2003 envisaged the OC as a
'government-owned registered society' with the Chairman of OC
Executive Board (EB) being a government appointee, and the IOA
President being only the EB Vice Chairman."
However, "the OC was ultimately set up in February 2005
as a 'non-government registered society' with the IOA
President Shri Suresh Kalmadi as the Chairman of the OC EB,"
it pointed out in the report tabled in Parliament.
The CAG said "despite serious objections" from the then
Indian Sports Minister late Sunil Dutt, Kalmadi was "appointed
as the OC Chairman, based on a PMO recommendation of December
2004.
"This decision (to appoint Kalmadi) facilitated conversion
of the originally envisaged government-owned OC into a body
outside governmental control without commensurate
accoutability to government and concomitant controls to ensure
propriety and transparency (despite full financial guarantee
and funding from government)," the CAG said.
Giving sequence of events, it said that on December 6,
2004, "a communication from the PMO stated that institutional
arrangements had been evolved for the conduct of the CWG-2010"
and in it, Kalmadi was "indicated as the Chairman of the
Organising Committee and the Executive Board."
It also "communicated the Prime Minister's direction that
these institutional arrangements be considered in the next GoM
meeting", the CAG said, adding the third GoM on January 29,
2005 "endorsed the views of the PMO and decided that the OC
would be headed by Shri Kalmadi".
The auditor noted that an "unwieldy 400-plus" general
body of the OC was constituted "which was not envisaged in the
bid document or the Host City Contract" and did not result in
any significant benefit or value addition to the Games.
"The OC .. functioned, in effect, as a parallel,
non-governmental organisation, without commensurate
accountability to government and concomitant controls to
ensure propriety and transparency (despite full financial
guarantee and funding from government)," it said.
The CAG referred to Dikshit, saying with her "active
involvement" luminaries (street lights) were imported at "far
higher cost" than the domestic ones, leading to "avoidable
extra expenditure of Rs 31.07 crore".
With regard to streetscaping and beautification of roads
around CWG venues, it said a "wasteful expenditure" of Rs
101.02 crore was caused by the "ad hoc and arbitrary manner"
of awarding contracts at an "exorbitant" average cost of Rs
4.8 crore per km.