Hooper snubs CAG report, defends Organising Committee

Mike Hooper defended the CWG organizing Committee over its broadcasting rights deal with Fast Track.

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi: Mike Hooper, CEO, Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), today defended the Commonwealth organizing Committee (OC) over its broadcasting rights deal with london-based company Fast Track, saying that OC did go through the bidding process. Talking to the reporters in Delhi, Hooper, though, clarified that it the OC which decided on the deal, not the Commonwealth Games Federation. “OC decided on the deal”, Hooper said. He, though, admitted that CWF first recommended the name of Fast Track for its proven track record. Apart from recommending the name, they had no role to play. “CWF only recommended the name of Fast Track to the OC because the company has good track record”, he said. Snubbing the CAG report, Hooper said that CAG has come to a wrong conclusion. The CAG report, it is learnt, has also alleged that high profile officials such CWG chief Mike Fennel and CEO Mike Hoper were involved in various discrepancies. "I have not seen the CAG report myself. I have seen only media reports. I will ask OC to get us a copy of the CAG report. Will comment only after seeing it," Hooper said. Earlier, OC Secretary General Lalit Bhanot said it was a well thought out decision to award the deal to Fast Track as they did not want to give too many contracts to SMAM, which already had bagged the sponsorship contract. "Fast Track is a well known company in this field and we have to ensure that company which has the experience is given the job. They had done it in Melbourne and other Commonwealth Games. It was a very wise (decision) that we did not put all the eggs in one basket," Bhanot said. "Fast Track has almost doubled the revenue we targetted. I think it`s fully justified and a proper procedure was followed and it was a decision taken by the Board that not to give both the contract to one firm despite the fact that they were charging less.” "But now the end result is that we have achieved double the target... we have earned more," he said. The OC had recently scrapped its sponsorship deal with SMSM on grounds of `non-performance`, a claim that has been refuted by the Australian firm, which said the charges against it are "imaginary".