Journalism of Courage
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on infrastructure development for Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) 2008 points at instances of irregularities in award of contracts. The report indicated that there had been excess expenditure and loss of revenue of over Rs 220 crore in the games.
CYG 2008,a sub-event of the Commonwealth Games,were held in Pune between October 12 and 18,2008,under the stewardship of Organising Committee (OC) of CWG headed by Suresh Kalmadi. The games were held at the Shiv Chattrapati Sports Complex,Pune,which was refurbished and upgraded for the event. Rules and regulations were openly flouted in award of contracts for construction and refurbishment of sports complex and procurement of electronic,sports and other equipment. The executive committee of the games placed supply orders for various sports equipment on the basis of single tender on recommendations of OC, the report states.
The apex committee and the review committee set up for CYG failed to closely oversee the arrangements for the Games,the report states. The apex committee never met and the review committee met only thrice. The report states that the planning for sports infrastructure for CYG was seriously deficient as the cost of the main work increased by 85 per cent. Additional works were awarded to contractors without tendering in guise of urgency.
Planning and execution of the city infrastructure by Pune Municipal Corporation and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation were not effective.
In its report,CAG states that lack of effective planning and execution resulted in non-completion of many city infrastructure works before CYG. Commencement of work without ensuring clear sites resulted in blocking of funds and unavoidable expenditure of Rs 177.04 crore.
Undue benefit was given to M/s Unity Infra projects private limited in construction of three star hotel on PPP basis on a single financial bid at net present value far below than the recommendation of finance department. Arrears of annual premium amounting to Rs 4.70 crore had not been collected from the firm as of January 2011.
Director of Sports and Youth Services unauthorisedly retained an unspent amount of Rs 3.47 crore drawn from the contingency fund and did not remit the same into the treasury.
The main work of new construction and refurbishment/upgrade of the infrastructure was awarded to a contractor though the executive committee had not accorded a technical sanction.
Undue favour was shown to M/s B G Shirke Construction Technology Private Limited in award of contracts worth RS 32.56 crore without tendering and excess payment of RS 45.79 lakh was made to them for installation of passenger elevators due to application of incorrect rates.
CCTV cameras and liquid LCDs procured at cost of Rs 1.63 crore are lying idle after the event. Despite a request from Pune police commissioner to let them use CCTVs for security purposes,this was not done.
