SURESH KALMADI, Chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, today refuted the fresh corruption allegations, which were highlighted in the interim report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). However, despite his rebuttal the games coninue to face serious charges of corruption and it would take a lot of effort to clear the scars.
The corruption allegations surfaced, when the CAG report highlighted massive lapses in the manner the companies were chosen to handle the television and broadcasting rights. One of the companies mentioned in the report was London based Fast Track Sales, which was given the broadcasting rights. An estimated amount of Rs 24 crore was lost in the revenue. It also mentioned that other potential bidders were not concentrated upon while handling out the broadcasting rights to the aforementioned company.
An Australia based company SMAM which was in the news till last week, was hired to rope in international advertisers and sponsors. The CAG report says that apart from SMAM, four other companies had also bidden for the contract but only the former was selected. As reports of corruption surfaced in this segment, Kalmadi allegedly terminated the company on the grounds of “non-performance”. As of now, the sponsorship number is cut to half its original numbers.
For the Queen's Baton Relay in October 2009, the interim report mentioned that the consultant chosen for the ceremony was, strangely, the highest bidder. By using Maxxam International, the report said that Rs 6.16 crore had been wasted. In defence, Kalmadi said that Maxxam had experience in handling the same ceremony for earlier Games. And since the country's prestige was at stake Maxxam International had been chosen to carry out the tasks.
Read More >> Commonwealth Games 2010 , Commonwealth Games News
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