Tuesday, February 22, 2011

CWG report likely to be tabled in Parliament

The report of the government auditor CAG on the Common wealth Games is likely to be tabled during the second leg of the Budget Session, start in New Delhi on Monday. "Auditors are still in the process of finalizing the CWG report and most likely it would be ready for tabling in April," sources said. While the first part of the Budget session will end on March 16, the second part will be from April 4 to April 21.

The Comptroller and Auditor General had in November last year said that it was conducting a broad-based audit of the overlays involved in the Games and a report would be ready by January. The two-week long Common wealth Games held in New Delhi between October 3-14, 2010, cost Rs 70,000 crore. The Organising Committee (OC) of the Games is in the thick of allegations of corruption, ranging from favoritism in award of various contracts to expensive hire of training gear and inflating costs of building contracts.

CAG is vetting the expenditures incurred on different CWG related projects, sources added. During the course of the audit the CAG had send audit memos to the Organising Committee seeking their reply on the findings. In a communication to the OC in December, the CAG had said that some of the items for the Games were procured at prices higher than the market rates. The OC had vulgar rates of the items contracted by allowing some sellers to form a cartel, which then put in costlier bids, according to the memo.

Further, the auditor in another memo had pointed out that former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor had been paid $ 30,000 for presence 12 meetings of the Common wealth Games Organising Committee and for his consultancy services. Tharoor had rendered the consultancy services between September 2008 and January 2009, before he took charge as a minister. Other agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and Central Vigilance Commission are investigating the officials of the OC.

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