CWG neck on the line, some heads roll

The Organising Committee (OC) of the Commonwealth Games today suspended two top officials and terminated its contract with the Australian sports marketing company Sports Marketing and Management (SMAM), which has failed to bring in sponsors for the Games.

OC Treasurer Anil Khanna resigned earlier in the day, following the publication of reports alleging that the contract for laying synthetic tennis courts for the Games had gone to a company of which his son is CEO.

In Parliament, Sports Minister M S Gill promised to take “all action” into the charges of corruption and mismanagement in the Games.

OC Joint Director-General (Revenue & Marketing) T S Darbari and Joint Director-General (Accounts and Finance) M Jeychandran were suspended after a three-member probe team submitted its report to the OC Executive Board. A third top official — whose sacking the government asked for earlier this month — Deputy Director-General Sanjay Mohindroo, resigned a few months ago.

“We have suspended these officals as they were responsible for the delivery and conduct of the Queen Baton’s Relay in London. We are handing over the case to the Enforcement Directorate for further investigation,” OC Secretary General Lalit Bhanot told a press conference here this evening. The OC’s under-fire Chairman Suresh Kalmadi skipped the press conference.

While Jeychandran handled the now-controversial finances of the Relay in London, Darbari has been under the scanner since January in connection with alleged irregularities in the import of jewellery into India, a case reported by The Indian Express on February 10.

A courier arrested by Kochi Customs on January 29 had on him a diamond ring worth Rs 28 lakh and an invoice in Darbari’s name. The official went on leave after publication of the report. He returned to work on April 7. On April 29, Kalmadi declined the Sports Ministry’s advice to sack him, asking Minister Gill to “kindly appreciate that since there is no case or charge against Darbari, the question of divesting him of charge in the OC does not arise”.

Jeychandran’s name figured prominently in the controversy around the Queens Baton Relay in London, for which an UK-based firm called A M Films was allegedly handed out large irregular payments. Jeychandran was one of the three signatories to the document accepting A M Films’s bid on October 23, 2009.

Jeychandran has not yet submitted a defence to the charges against him. “We will hear out his part tomorrow,” Bhanot said.

Bhanot also announced that the OC Executive Board had “decided to terminate SMAM’s contract with immediate effect following breach of contract, mainly their non-performance”. SMAM, Bhanot said, had failed to meet targets: “Till June 30th they were to get sponsorship worth $1,22,581.”

The OC had signed a deal with SMAM on July 25, 2007, making the company the “sole and exclusive negotiator and procurer of sponsonsorship for licensing contracts”. SMAM was guaranteed a commission of between 15% and 22.5% on all sponsorships, even on those that it did not bring.

On April 20, The Indian Express reported that SMAM had failed to get in any major sponsorships. The OC till now has Rs 342 crore from 10 sponsors, four of which — making up the bulk of the commitment — are PSUs.