New Delhi: The CBI has formed a Special
Investigating Team (SIT) to study the Comptroller and Auditor
General`s report on Commonwealth games and to see whether any
fresh case could be registered.
The SIT, headed by a Joint Director, will also collaborate
with other investigating agencies like the Income Tax and
Enforcement Directorate, CBI sources said.
The SIT would be recommending whether any fresh case is
possible apart from 14 regular cases and three Preliminary
Enquiries, which have been registered by the agency on
recommendations of the Central Vigilance Commission.
The CAG has been critical of Sheila Dikshit Government on
import of street lights at higher price and claimed that due
to "active involvement of the Delhi Chief Minister", exchequer
suffered a loss of nearly Rs 31 crore.
It also claimed to have found irregularities in the award
of contract to Emaar MGF for construction of the CWG
residential complex.
The renovation and restoration project of Connaught Place
witnessed a nine-fold increase in cost from the estimated Rs
76 crore to Rs 671 crore.
Street scaping and beautification works were awarded and
executed in an arbitrary manner with wasteful expenditure of
Rs 101 crore, the report said.
"In the absence of a single point of authority and
accountability, and the lack of a clear governance structure,
a multiplicity of coordination committees was created,
disbanded and reconstituted at different points of time," it
said.
According to the CAG, the Organising Committee`s
performance in revenue general was "consistently poor across
all major revenue streams".
CAG said the the Organising Committee (OC) could generate
committed sponsorship revenue of just Rs 375.16 crore (against
the target of Rs 960 crore), out of which nearly 67 per cent
was from government agencies/ PSUs.
No revenue has been received on account of merchandising
and licensing rights, the report said.
OC`s performance on ticketing was also deficient. Gross
ticketing revenue of just Rs 39.17 crore was realised
(against the target of Rs 100 crore).
The appointment of the ticketing consultant and the
ticketing agency was delayed enormously, and sale of tickets
commenced only in September 2010, the report said.
On project for modernisation of Delhi Street Lighting
System, CAG said detailed lighting standards were prepared in
November 2006.
"Although these standards provided only the technical
parameters of performance of lamps and luminaries and did not
distinguish between indigenous and imported luminaries, PWD
stipulated the use of a mix of imported and indigenous
luminaries for different categories of roads.
"Records show the decision on use of imported luminaries
being taken with the active involvement of the CM at various
stages.
"No technical note regarding reasons for use of imported
luminaries along with cost benefit analysis was found on
record," the report said.
The imported luminaries were procured at a far higher cost
than the domestic luminaries, leading to avoidable extra
expenditure of Rs 31.07 crore across the three agencies.
Models of various companies of vastly different repute and
of different price range were selected at the same level,
without any record of techno-economic evaluation of options
offered by different bidders.
"We also found that the procurement price of imported
luminaries was far higher than the fair price computed on the
basis of actual invoice price," the CAG claimed.
PTI
