PTI: New Delhi, October 25, 2010
The Central Vigilance Commission has formed a “special cell” comprising senior officials to look into complaints of corruption related to Commonwealth Games projects.
Sources said the special cell, which is functional in the Commission’s office, is responsible for coordination and logical conclusion of the complaints besides speeding up the probe process.
“There has been a surge in the number of complaints related to alleged corruption in the Commonwealth Games. Since the amount involved in the corruption is growing, we thought of opening a special cell to exclusively deal with it,” a CVC official, who did not wish to be identified, said.
“About five senior officials of the rank of Additional Secretary are manning the cell. All complaints received by us are being looked after them,” he said.
According to the officer, the Cell will remain operational till the Commission hands over its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appointed V.K. Shunglu Committee. The Commission’s probe will be speeded up by the Cell.
The Commission is probing different Commonwealth Games related projects for alleged financial and administrative irregularities to the tune of Rs 5,000-8,000 crore.
The anti-corruption watchdog is facing problems of non-cooperation and lackadaisical approach from some of the departments accused of corruption.
It has also formed teams of technical examiners who would soon randomly visit stadia, Games Village and other construction projects carried out by different agencies in the national capital.
The CVC has found alleged financial discrepancies in tenders floated by different government departments like Ministry of Sports, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Public Works Department (PWD) and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) among others.
Besides, serious lapses were noticed in the tenders and award of contracts given to various companies by the Organising Committee.
They said discrepancies like payment to non-existent parties, wilful delay in execution of contracts, over-inflated price and bunglings in purchase of equipment through tendering have been noticed.
In reply to an RTI application filed by PTI, the CVC has given details of 22 projects executed by different government agencies where financial and administrative discrepancies have been detected.
Out of the total projects, six were carried out by the Sports ministry, four by DDA, and three by OC, two each by MCD, CPWD and Government of National Capital territory of Delhi.
One work each relating to Department of Commerce, Indian Meteorological Department and New Delhi Municipal Council is also being probed, the RTI reply said.
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