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The Shunglu Committee has faulted Mr Suresh Kalmadi, the sacked chief of Commonwealth Games organising body, and his aides over award of contracts saying there was “extreme concentration of powers at the top” and “conflict of interest” among the Organising Committee (OC) officials.
The two-member committee, headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General Mr V K Shunglu, in its fresh report, also upbraided several government agencies for causing losses of over Rs 1,600 crore in executing projects.
The committee, which went into the complaints of alleged corruption and irregularities in the conduct of sporting extravaganza, said the OC had serious governance problems due to an unwieldy general body with 500 members and a “subservient” executive board.
“The OC was synonymous with the Chairman. Extreme concentration of power at the top ensured that decision making remained concentrated in the hands of the Chairman and his coterie of loyal senior management.”
“Extreme conflict of interest was inherent in key officials of IOA holding senior position in OC,” the report said, questioning the decision-making procedures adopted by Mr Kalmadi.
‘Wrong tone'
The committee found that the tone at the top (of the OC) created a situation where wrongdoing was common and best practices were not encouraged.
“Accountability, internal and external was not the norm. The Executive Board hardly exercised its governance role and often delegated responsibility to the Executive Management Committee to the point of abdication of responsibility.
Consequently all key decisions were taken by handful of powerful loyalists of the Chairman (Mr Kalmadi),” the Committee said.
It found that recruitment of key positions in the secretariat and the senior leadership positions was not based on merit and most of them had no games time experience. Any dissent was not tolerated. “Many senior positions were filled up with persons of questionable integrity and past records of vigilance cases. Government instructions were flouted in posting of staff in sensitive positions,” it said.
Skewed ethos
“It appears as if to economise was criminal and to splurge was civil.”
This was the observation made by the committee which found a loss of over Rs 1,600 crore in construction and renovation of venues for Commonwealth Games by different government agencies.
In its fourth report on Games venues, the committee blamed senior officials of civic and construction government agencies like Central Public Works Department (CPWD), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Public Works Department (PWD), New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and RITES among others for inordinate delays, inflated prices and rigged tender process.
The Committee found Rs 800 crore as cost of delay in completing construction of all the games and training venues across the national capital and said that financial oversight by different agencies resulted in undue gain of over Rs 250 crore to contractors.
The HLC said that there was an estimated Rs 574 crore of “wasteful expenditure” on certain types of assets.
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