Commonwealth Games Scam

The commonwealth games hosted in New Delhi gave rise to a monumental scam.

The common wealth games officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games
were held in Delhi from 3 to 14 October,2010. A total of 6081 athletes from 77
Commonwealth nations and dependencies competed in 21 sports and 272events.

It was the largest Intercontinental multi-sport event to be staged In Delhi and

India eclipsing the Asian games in 1951 and 1982.

The opening and closing ceremonies were held at the Jawaharlal Nehru
Stadium, the main stadium of the event. It was first time that the games were held in
India and second time it was held in Asia after Kualalampur in 1998.

Initially several concerns and controversies surfaced before the start of the games.

The day after the conclusion of the games, the government of India
announced the formation of a Special Investigation Committee to probe the
allegations of corruption and mismanagement that had marred the buildup to the
games. The probe committee was led by former Comptroller and Auditor General of
India Sri V.K.Shungloo.The probe was in addition to the CBI, Enforcement
Directrorate and CVC Investigations..

The probe committee was tasked with looking into all aspects of organizing and
conducting the games and to draw lessons from it.

The CBI registered cases in the alleged irregularities and has arrested CWG OC
Chairman Suresh Kalmadi’s close aides.

The CBI raided the residences of Suresh Kalmadi at Pune and New Delhi.

The CBI registered cases against Organising Committee Secretary General Lalit
Bhanot and Director General V.K. Verma, believed to be close associates of Sri
Suresh Kalmadi.

He initial total budget estimated by the IOA in 2003 for hosting the games was
Rs.1620 crores.

In 2010,hoever, the official budget soon escalated to a estimate of Rs.11,500 crores,

a figure which excluded the non-sports related infrastructure development.

Several concerns were raised over the preparation of the games and those included
excessive budget estimates, widespread corruption by the officials of the
games organizing committee.
The Central Vigilance commission, the apex Government Anti-corruption Agency
released a report highlighting financial irregularities in upto 14 games
projects.As per the CVC report, in total129 works in 71 organizations were
inspected. The preliminary findings include a –complete lack of involvement of
the city and community at large, award of work contracts at higher prices,
poor quality assurance and management and award of work contracts to
ineligible agencies.

Corruption charges and Scams are new face of Indian politics these days.

As many as four investigating agencies—the CVC, Enforcement Directorate, Income-

Tax department and comptroller and Auditor general are looking into the
allegations of corruption against the Organizers of the Commonwealth Games.

India has slipped to 87th spot in Transparency International’s latest ranking of nations
based on the level of corruption, with the global watch dog asserting that
perception about corruption in the country increased in the wake of the Scam
tainted Commonwealth Games.

The common wealth games despite facing the seemingly in –surmountable problems
at the eleventh hour, was a grand success. Many of us heard the jubilant
declaration of Michael Fennel, President of the Commonwealth Games
Federation who said “Delhi, you have delivered a truly exceptional games”

Indian public life has been overrun by corruption for the single reason that
irrespective of the party or parties in power, the governments of the day have
at best sought to play it down, offered it tacit support and at worst connived
with the perpetrators.

Scams, Frauds and other grafts cases are detected with overwhelming rapidity and
the latest ones surpass older ones in technique and figures involved.