Brotherhood
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- May 31, 2010
- Messages
- 2,439
- Reaction score
- 0
Crooks hijack Delhi Games Aug 7, 2010
By Raja Murthy
MUMBAI - The Commonwealth Games in New Delhi this October are racing to a record of a non-athletic kind: the world's most corrupt sporting event.
More than 5,000 athletes from 71 countries and thousands of visitors are expected for the games, the 19th such event for countries formerly under British rule. Corruption scandals exposed in the past few days appear to be merely an indication of how funds have been sucked away from an extravaganza that is costing taxpayers up to US$7.5 billion - more than 1,500% over initial budgets given in parliament.
"It's bizarre," said Ralph Pais, a senior Mumbai-based media
professional and sports fan, voicing the incredulity and disgust of a nation. "Are they building stadiums or a city?"
"They" refers to the Indian Olympics Association and the Organizing Committee, two stakeholders that signed the hosting rights in Jamaica in 2003. Others in the mega mess include the London-based Commonwealth Games Federation, the Delhi state government and the Indian government.
Anil Khanna, the Games treasurer and head of the All India Tennis Association, resigned this week after reports claimed an Australian firm won the contract to lay tennis courts for the Games because his son headed its Indian arm. Khanna denies any wrongdoing. On the same day, the Games' joint directors general TS Darbari and M Jeyachandran, and deputy director general Sanjay Mohindroo, were suspended following an investigation into financial irregularities.
Where much of the $7.5 billion vanished is a bewildering question the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is trying to answer. CBI sleuths are probing allegations of bribery, over-billing, illegal commissions, improper contracts, substandard construction work - and perhaps millions of dollars siphoned off to secret bank accounts.
Bribery and other money-mischief are nearly routine in major sporting events, most famously in the bidding for the 2002 Winter Olympics, held in Salt Lake City, Utah. But the New Delhi event, to be held from October 3 to 14, appears to be in a league of its own.
Officials of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the top body for investigating government corruption, detected irregularities after inspecting 186 Games-related projects involving 128 agencies in the past two years. The works included construction of five stadiums, upgrades of six old ones, and building of a Games village and about 20 training venues.
A CVC report declared that "almost all" organizations executing works for the Games have quoted higher than market prices. "Despite higher rates," the report said, "poor site management, delays and quality compromises have been observed." Other detected fraud included tampering with sealed bid documents.
The CBI and the Comptroller and Auditor General are scrutinizing 16 Games-related projects for corruption, including contracts to buy overpriced goods.
Sports equipment, stadium chairs, air-conditioners, even soap dispensers and umbrellas, were marked up over market prices by an eye-popping 800% to 1,000%. Locally available treadmills, for instance, costing about US$8,600 each to buy, were allegedly rented from fictitious "foreign" firms for $21,000, for 45 days. In a turnaround, Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee secretary general Lalit Bhanot said athletics equipment such as treadmills will now be bought rather than rented, so as to leave a legacy of the games, Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday.
As whistleblowers expose more malpractice, insiders say the CBI has two years of work ahead sifting through what might be one of the world's biggest organized looting of public funds.
The corruption web stretches worldwide, with the CBI investigating firms in Australia and Britain, in alleged pay-offs for construction, supplying equipment and services. ATM Films, an obscure company in London, was paid $400,000 for renting sundries like portable toilets, mobile video screens and ambulances for the Queen's Baton Relay last October 29, without any written contract.
The mess has added firepower to those questioning if India should be hosting the Commonwealth Games, and if any public good would come out of it. Were the Games merely an excuse for politicians ruling sporting bodies to strut on the global stage, or, as is being revealed, to put in play Operation Loot?
Former Delhi High Court Chief Justice AP Shah's in May released a damning, detailed 77-page report titled "The 2010 Commonwealth Games: Whose Wealth? Whose Commons?" Besides revealing glaring irregularities, bribery and costs escalation of the Games by 1,575 %, Justice Shah also studied the social cost. It showed the homeless, beggars and slum dwellers in New Delhi being harassed in governmental efforts to hide them from view.
The window-dressing is backfiring. "Hundreds of thousands displaced in New Delhi to make way for the Commonwealth Games" ran the headline of a Washington Post report on July 10.
"For the 11-day Games event, the government demolished the lives we built here over 18 years," 58-year-old vegetable seller Rehman Khan, whose house was smashed to make way for a Games project, told the Post.
A leading Indian footballer, Bhaichung Bhutia, joined the chorus of complaints on August 4. India should not have bid to host the Games, he said, when the country lacked even basic sporting infrastructure - such as sufficient playing grounds for children.
New Delhi residents are not impressed, either, by the way their lives have been disrupted during construction for apparently very poor results. "The stadiums are in terrible condition," says Sohini Paul, a senior project officer of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, a Delhi-based non-governmental organization. "Its a shame to think the Games are going to be held there in less than two months."
India's sports minister, MS Gill, told parliament: "Most of the venues have already hosted test events without glitches. I have had a look at the stadiums, they are ready. Just the finishing work remains to be done."
On August 4, a silent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sat grimly through uproar in parliament over the Games scandal. An opposition party member called it "the Loot Games".
In the eye of the storm is Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the Organizing Committee and president of the Indian Olympic Association. Kalmadi a 66-year-old former air force pilot and Congress party member of parliament, defiantly rejected corruption charges.
The world of Indian sport is already well known to be infected by inefficient politicians heading sporting bodies, sometimes for decades thanks to sham elections, unaccountable and impervious to the fact that India has the worst Olympics record among major nations.
Kalmadi has been president of the Indian Olympic Association since 1996, has headed the Singapore-based Asian Athletics Association since 2001, and has been a lifetime president of the Athletics Federation of India since 2006.
Under Kalmadis watch, India won a total of five medals in the Sydney Olympics (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008) combined - in contrast to China winning 222 medals, Japan 80 and South Korea 89 in those last three Olympics.
For decades, Indian sportsmen and women have complained about poor facilities and poorer treatment from officials. This week, even as more sordid details of the multi-billion dollar scam unfolded, the Indian rugby team for the Commonwealth Games complained they were given substandard food to eat.
There is much talk about Indias "prestige" in hosting the Commonwealth Games, but not just pride will be injured if a badly built stadium roof collapses on spectators and athletes this October. Given the picture that is emerging of how the Games have been organized so far, it's a risk that can't be ignored.
Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan
By Raja Murthy
MUMBAI - The Commonwealth Games in New Delhi this October are racing to a record of a non-athletic kind: the world's most corrupt sporting event.
More than 5,000 athletes from 71 countries and thousands of visitors are expected for the games, the 19th such event for countries formerly under British rule. Corruption scandals exposed in the past few days appear to be merely an indication of how funds have been sucked away from an extravaganza that is costing taxpayers up to US$7.5 billion - more than 1,500% over initial budgets given in parliament.
"It's bizarre," said Ralph Pais, a senior Mumbai-based media
professional and sports fan, voicing the incredulity and disgust of a nation. "Are they building stadiums or a city?"
"They" refers to the Indian Olympics Association and the Organizing Committee, two stakeholders that signed the hosting rights in Jamaica in 2003. Others in the mega mess include the London-based Commonwealth Games Federation, the Delhi state government and the Indian government.
Anil Khanna, the Games treasurer and head of the All India Tennis Association, resigned this week after reports claimed an Australian firm won the contract to lay tennis courts for the Games because his son headed its Indian arm. Khanna denies any wrongdoing. On the same day, the Games' joint directors general TS Darbari and M Jeyachandran, and deputy director general Sanjay Mohindroo, were suspended following an investigation into financial irregularities.
Where much of the $7.5 billion vanished is a bewildering question the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is trying to answer. CBI sleuths are probing allegations of bribery, over-billing, illegal commissions, improper contracts, substandard construction work - and perhaps millions of dollars siphoned off to secret bank accounts.
Bribery and other money-mischief are nearly routine in major sporting events, most famously in the bidding for the 2002 Winter Olympics, held in Salt Lake City, Utah. But the New Delhi event, to be held from October 3 to 14, appears to be in a league of its own.
Officials of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the top body for investigating government corruption, detected irregularities after inspecting 186 Games-related projects involving 128 agencies in the past two years. The works included construction of five stadiums, upgrades of six old ones, and building of a Games village and about 20 training venues.
A CVC report declared that "almost all" organizations executing works for the Games have quoted higher than market prices. "Despite higher rates," the report said, "poor site management, delays and quality compromises have been observed." Other detected fraud included tampering with sealed bid documents.
The CBI and the Comptroller and Auditor General are scrutinizing 16 Games-related projects for corruption, including contracts to buy overpriced goods.
Sports equipment, stadium chairs, air-conditioners, even soap dispensers and umbrellas, were marked up over market prices by an eye-popping 800% to 1,000%. Locally available treadmills, for instance, costing about US$8,600 each to buy, were allegedly rented from fictitious "foreign" firms for $21,000, for 45 days. In a turnaround, Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee secretary general Lalit Bhanot said athletics equipment such as treadmills will now be bought rather than rented, so as to leave a legacy of the games, Hindustan Times reported on Wednesday.
As whistleblowers expose more malpractice, insiders say the CBI has two years of work ahead sifting through what might be one of the world's biggest organized looting of public funds.
The corruption web stretches worldwide, with the CBI investigating firms in Australia and Britain, in alleged pay-offs for construction, supplying equipment and services. ATM Films, an obscure company in London, was paid $400,000 for renting sundries like portable toilets, mobile video screens and ambulances for the Queen's Baton Relay last October 29, without any written contract.
The mess has added firepower to those questioning if India should be hosting the Commonwealth Games, and if any public good would come out of it. Were the Games merely an excuse for politicians ruling sporting bodies to strut on the global stage, or, as is being revealed, to put in play Operation Loot?
Former Delhi High Court Chief Justice AP Shah's in May released a damning, detailed 77-page report titled "The 2010 Commonwealth Games: Whose Wealth? Whose Commons?" Besides revealing glaring irregularities, bribery and costs escalation of the Games by 1,575 %, Justice Shah also studied the social cost. It showed the homeless, beggars and slum dwellers in New Delhi being harassed in governmental efforts to hide them from view.
The window-dressing is backfiring. "Hundreds of thousands displaced in New Delhi to make way for the Commonwealth Games" ran the headline of a Washington Post report on July 10.
"For the 11-day Games event, the government demolished the lives we built here over 18 years," 58-year-old vegetable seller Rehman Khan, whose house was smashed to make way for a Games project, told the Post.
A leading Indian footballer, Bhaichung Bhutia, joined the chorus of complaints on August 4. India should not have bid to host the Games, he said, when the country lacked even basic sporting infrastructure - such as sufficient playing grounds for children.
New Delhi residents are not impressed, either, by the way their lives have been disrupted during construction for apparently very poor results. "The stadiums are in terrible condition," says Sohini Paul, a senior project officer of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, a Delhi-based non-governmental organization. "Its a shame to think the Games are going to be held there in less than two months."
India's sports minister, MS Gill, told parliament: "Most of the venues have already hosted test events without glitches. I have had a look at the stadiums, they are ready. Just the finishing work remains to be done."
On August 4, a silent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sat grimly through uproar in parliament over the Games scandal. An opposition party member called it "the Loot Games".
In the eye of the storm is Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the Organizing Committee and president of the Indian Olympic Association. Kalmadi a 66-year-old former air force pilot and Congress party member of parliament, defiantly rejected corruption charges.
The world of Indian sport is already well known to be infected by inefficient politicians heading sporting bodies, sometimes for decades thanks to sham elections, unaccountable and impervious to the fact that India has the worst Olympics record among major nations.
Kalmadi has been president of the Indian Olympic Association since 1996, has headed the Singapore-based Asian Athletics Association since 2001, and has been a lifetime president of the Athletics Federation of India since 2006.
Under Kalmadis watch, India won a total of five medals in the Sydney Olympics (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008) combined - in contrast to China winning 222 medals, Japan 80 and South Korea 89 in those last three Olympics.
For decades, Indian sportsmen and women have complained about poor facilities and poorer treatment from officials. This week, even as more sordid details of the multi-billion dollar scam unfolded, the Indian rugby team for the Commonwealth Games complained they were given substandard food to eat.
There is much talk about Indias "prestige" in hosting the Commonwealth Games, but not just pride will be injured if a badly built stadium roof collapses on spectators and athletes this October. Given the picture that is emerging of how the Games have been organized so far, it's a risk that can't be ignored.
Asia Times Online :: South Asia news, business and economy from India and Pakistan
