TEAM HERALD
sports@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Tainted Commonwealth Games official, Rajkumar Sacheti who has been under investigation of the Central Vigilance Commission was appointed as advisor for the Lusofonia Games by the Goa government in the run up to the Games leading to the resignation of the then Organizing Committee chairman Shripad Naik, president of the Goa BJP state unit and North Goa Member of Parliament.
Sacheti, who was found misusing his official position as Joint DG, CWG by the Central Vigilance Commission and a close aide of under trial CWG OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi, was appointed along with another CWG official V V Saxena.
Despite his tainted status he continued in his role and it has now come to the attention of the Herald that one of his connections bid for the tender to furnish all the stadiums for the Lusofonia Games with the rent being 80% of the cost of the furniture.
This amount however drew the attention of the chief minister Manohar Parrikar who called for the file to be examined by himself.
LUGOC officials exclaimed surprise at the CM calling for the file and questioned the role of the advisor and his performance while holding the post.
The CM seemed to have found something fishy and stated in a meeting that instead of paying 80% as rent and then returning the furniture, the state should just buy the furniture and use them for the years to come.This purchase would also benefit the state for years to come.
However the rent amount was then brought down to around 60% of the cost and allotted to the same person to bid for the tender in the first place.
The furniture is believed to have arrived from Rajasthan over the last two weeks. Nevertheless a visit to the stadiums around Goa, Peddem Indoor Sports Stadium today and the Goa University Stadium and the Bambolim Sports Stadium on Saturday has revealed no sign of any such furniture in the offices or they being furnished.
Due to the coverage of the Herald, Lusofonia Games Organising Committee (LUGOC) officials ordered all the personnel to shift into the stadiums, except the stadiums are yet to be furnished.
