Shunglu Committee slams sr CAG official for CWG irregularities

New Delhi, Aug 12 (PTI) A senior official of the CAG
(Comptroller and Auditor General of India), which had prepared
a report on the Commonwealth Games malpractices, is himself
under the scanner of a High Level Committee that went into the
irregularities of the mega sporting event.
In its report submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,
HLC headed by former CAG V K Shunglu has said that R S
Mathrani, presently Director General in the CAG, has followed
an "arbitrary" procedure to select Engineers India Limited
(EIL) as project management consultant during his tenure as
Finance Officer in Delhi University.
Interestingly, Mathrani has contributed to CAG's report
on Commonwealth Games irregularities which indicted Delhi
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and certain officials of her
government.
According to the report, in one of its notes Mathrani
recorded that EIL would be invited to make a presentation to
the Works Advisory Board and, if found suitable, price
negotiations would be carried out to finalise the consultancy
fees.
"If EIL is not found suitable then other PSUs would be
invited to make a presentation," it said.
"Having such a condition for selection of agency clearly
demonstrates that other identified agencies were not offered
equal opportunity to be selected. EIL was given preference
over others by inviting them to make presentation to Work
Advisory Board.
"No opportunity was given to other agencies -- Rites
Limited & Engineering (Projects) India Limited-- to make
similar presentations," the Shunglu panel pointed.
The Committee felt that the consultancy fee of Rs 23
crore to EIL was very high and unjustified.