NOW, THE CWG HANGOVER
PM appoints high-level team to study corruption charges
PTI
NEW DELHI, OCT 15
With the Commonwealth Games over and demands for probe mounting, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tonight appointed a high-level committee headed by former CAG to go into allegations of corruption related to the mega sporting event.
The committee, headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) V K Shunglu, will submit its report to the Prime Minister within three months, PMO spokesman said.
The announcement came even as the CAG stepped into the picture to conduct assessment of various projects related to the CWG with officials set to visit all the stadia and go through records.
Significantly, CWG Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi, who has been in the line of fire over the corruption allegations, was snubbed when he was not invited to a felicitation at the Prime Minister’s residence for Indian medal winners.
“The government has decided to constitute a high-level committee under former CAG V K Shunglu to look into all matters relating to organising and conduct of the Commonwealth Games 2010, New Delhi, including to draw lessons from it,” the spokesman said.
The details of terms of reference will be announced in a day or two, the spokesman said.
The developments came as opposition parties, which had held their fire during the 12-day event, today stepped up their demand for thorough probe into corruption charges which the Congress said should be done and those guilty, if any, be brought to book.
The CAG, which had held up its audit during the Games, today sent its inspection officials to the CPWD office located inside S P Mukherjee Stadium to check the accounts related to the CWG projects.
The audit work for CWG is related to work payments, contracts and leasing of sports equipment among others.
The CAG audit would look into how the balance between the cost and quality has been maintained and whether there has been any cost overrun.
“We have started with the CPWD office inside the S P Mukherjee Stadium today. Now that the athletes have vacated the venues, we will gradually start sending our inspection officers to all the stadia,” an official with the auditing watchdog said.
The CAG had begun assessing the Games’ expenditure in August.
