THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES SCAM.

The Commonwealth Games started in 1930 under the name of British Empire games. Later on they were renamed as British Commonwealth Games and they assumed the current title in 1978. Initially it was started to bring together all the nations under British Empire for increasing the goodwill and understanding of the British Empire. The 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games, were held in Delhi, India, from 3rd to 14th October 2010. A total of 6,081 athletes from 71 Commonwealth nations and dependencies competed in 21 sports and 272 events, making it the largest Commonwealth Games till date. It was also the largest international multi-sport event to be staged in Delhi and India, eclipsing the Asian Games in 1951 and 1982. India won the bid for hosting the Commonwealth Games 2010 on November 13th 2003. According to the report published by HLRN, the bid was clinched by the following offer made by the Indian delegation training worth 7.2 billion$ given to all the athletes of all the Commonwealth nations. People like minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had already questioned about India hosting the games, since they believed that developing countries like India should be more concerned with the development of the nation. The CWG scam started resurfacing in around July 2010, when the CWG Organizing Committee (OC), without proper paperwork or contract , was alleged to have paid 450,000 pounds to AM Films, for the London launch of the Queens Baton relay. The entire deal came to light when the OC asked for a VAT refund of 14,000 pounds in March this year for the payments made to the British company. Around the same time there were concerns being raised by various parties about the amount of expenditure and also the delays regarding various projects of the CWG which was to be held in month of October that year. Central Vigilance Committee(CVC) then asked its officials to examine all the contracts and tenders related to the projects. Costs:The initial total budget estimated by the Indian Olympic Association in 2003 for hosting the Games was 1620 crores. In 2010, however, the official total budget soon escalated to an estimated 11500 crores, a figure which excluded non-sports-related infrastructure development. Business Today magazine estimated that the Games cost 60,000 crores. According to sources 70% of this amount has gone into the pockets of the politicians and the bureaucrats. The Comonwealth Games 2010 are the costliest Commonwealth games ever. Chronology November 13th 2003 India wins the bid for hosting the 2010 CWG. February 10th 2005 Organizing committee formed. 13th May 2010 - HLRN (Housing and Land Rights Network) publishes report questioning the rationale of spending crores of rupees on the sporting event. July 2010 CVC finds many irregularities in the CWG projects

July 31st 2010 Queens Baton relay related financial irregularities exposed. September 2010 Commonwealth Games Federation express concern about the progress of the preparations of the games. October 25th 2010 Shunglu panel appointed by the Prime Ministers office to probe into the financial irregularities of the CWG. December 24th 2010 CBI raids offices and residences of Suresh Kalmadi. January 24th 2011 Kalmadi sacked as chairman of CWG Organizing committee. February 23rd 2011 Lalit Bhanot and V K Verma arrested by the CBI. April 25th 2011 Suresh Kalmadi arrested.

Key Players Suresh Kalmadi, Sheila Dikshit, Lalit Bhanot. Some key points about the scam  Suresh Kalmadi as OC chief As per the May 2003 bid document, the President of Indian Olympic Association would only be the Vice-Chairman. But an updated bid document was prepared by the Indian Olympic Association. Former Sports Minister Sunil Dutt had raised a red flag over the issue on November 11, 2004. He shot off a letter to the Prime Minister saying the significant changes with major structural and financial implications have been made in the Organizing Committee without consultation or approval of the Ministry. The CAG has noted that they found substantial difference between the draft minutes of the Group of Minister meeting prepared by Sports ministry and those finalized by Cabinet Secretariat. By February 10, 2005, the OC was registered as a society and Suresh Kalmadi was named as chairman. In our opinion, the decision of the PMO for appointing Kalmadi as the chairman of the OC facilitated the conversion of the originally envisaged government-owned OC into a body effectively outside governmental control, the CAG report states. Yet, it was being funded by the government as it could only earn negligible revenue. People in the organizing committee , like V K Verma and S Panigrahi, who opposed Kalmadi were divested of their powers and were shifted to other departments.  Games will be revenue neutral, a myth The CAG report claims that former OC chairman, Suresh Kalmadi, falsely projecting that the Commonwealth Games will be revenue neutral. In reality, the total committed revenues accounted to just Rs 682.06 crores and the net revenue actually realized by the OC was just Rs 173.96 crores. The OC could generate only Rs 375.16 crores as sponsorship revenue, out of which nearly 67 per cent was from government agencies or PSUs. Many sponsors shied away given the risk of bad publicity and the withdrawal of big-name athletes like Chris

Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Usain Bolt. No revenue has been received on account of merchandising and licensing rights. The OC managed to earn only Rs 39.17 crores as against the target of Rs 100 crores from tickets.  Irregularities in tendering of contracts With the status of a society, the Organizing Committee had full freedom to set its own rules. The CAG has noted that the OC fully utilized this freedom. At least 107 contracts for Rs 310.68 crores were awarded on nomination basis without tendering. This included the much-debated Aerostat. The Italian firm K-events was hired by the OC merely on the basis of nomination from Wizcraft. Twenty-eight contracts for Rs 356.14 crore were awarded on the basis of single tenders. In many cases, by disqualifying all vendors, except one, on questionable grounds during evaluation. This example included contract for Village catering and GMS (Games Management System). CBI in its chargesheet against Kalmadi has given details of how he bent rules and overlooked the objections raised by the government officials to grant the contract to a Swiss firm for TSR (Timing, Scoring and Results) which caused a loss of Rs 95 crores to the exchequer. According to the CAG, 14 contracts worth Rs 1,253 crore were awarded to vendors not fulfilling the eligibility criteria stipulated in their own tender document. These included contracts for overlays, waste management and image and look.  High rates of props for ceremonies The OC had engaged Omung Kumar of Blue Lotus Productions as Art Director for Opening and Closing ceremonies and manufacturing the props. The proposal for appointment of Kumar was initiated on recommendation of Wizcraft. The props included vehicles of different categories, ownership for which was not transferred in OCs name. Further, props worth Rs 3 crore remained unused. Props worth Rs 2.38 crore were not received at all.  Role of Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit The Comptroller and Auditor General's(CAG) report points fingers at Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit too. The streetscaping and beautification project was ill-conceived and the selection of consultants was arbitrary and non-transparent, it said. Stating that there was "active involvement of the chief minister," the report said favours were granted to vendors who were not qualified. Her government came in for criticism on two major counts amounting to a collective wastage of public money to the tune of Rs 132 crore.  Impact on the infrastructure The commonwealth games 2010 related infrastructure projects left India's capital city, New Delhi, resembling a war zone. Practically all roads are dug up, cables lying all around, people jumping over little rocks as the pavements resemble Moon like craters. With more than 50,000 crore rupees pumped in one would have expected at least decent output.

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The newly built shooting range at the Siri Fort area collapsed after one heavy shower. The foot over bridge adjacent to the main venue of the Commonwealth Games collapsed while being erected, injuring 27 workers who were dumped into a tow away truck to a municipal hospital and dished out a compensation of measly Rs 50,000 ($1097) for broken skulls and multiple fractures. Many of the games venues leaked during the monsoon and roofs of some collapsed. The Commonwealth Games village, the place where athletes from participating countries were put up was infested with dog poo, snakes, clogged toilets, and unfinished work. Fancy bill boards have erected all over the city to hide the piles of garbage, slums that are a trademark sight in any major city in India.

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 Quality Compromised The CVC has so far scrutinized just 16 Games-related stadia upgradation and civil works projects, which include construction of roads, pavements, road grade separators, street lighting, etc. These projects are cumulatively worth Rs 2,477.22 crore. In the course of its scrutiny, the CVC team has zeroed in on the role of the third party quality assurance agency, appointed by civic agencies to monitor the quality of work and materials. The examination revealed that all certificates were issued without ground verification or technical examination, indicating that they were forged or fake.  Funds were diverted from the SC/ST development plan were diverted to the CWG expenditures.  Officials of Commonwealth Games Organising Committee had hired equipment for overlay works at over 14 times the actual price. The committee had taken equipment on rent at an inflated Rs 42.34 crore (over 1,400 per cent higher) against the actual cost of Rs 2.80 crore, thus giving undue benefits to the companies. Medical equipment including tread mills have been bought or rented at 6-7 times their original price. Liquid Soap Dispensers rented for Rs 9,379 a piece or $206.  Apart from the financial irregularities there were many other implications which included displacement of over one lakh families due to the infrastructure projects, arresting homeless citizens and beggars, exploitation of workers at all the projects, child labor and the list continues.  There were number of other controversies which surrounded the CWG 2010 games apart from the scam. Some of them included boycott threat by many individuals and teams from different nations for security and safety concerns. There were many problems related to the functioning of equipments and infrastructure for eg falling of debris into the swimmimg pool. The hygiene standards also came under scanner. Current Status Case is in special CBI court. Hearing on case is going on.

Suresh Kalmadi, Lalit Bhanot (Secretary General of OC), V K Verma were arrested and are currently in the Tihar Jail. The CWG scam has an approximate value of 36,000 crores of rupees or even more. When one-third of our population lives below the poverty line, and a majority of kids are malnourished, uneducated and lack access to healthcare this is not just shameful, but criminal.