New Delhi:
Just days after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a case against Suresh Kalmadi for allegedly awarding a dubious contract to a Switzerland-based consulting firm, Event Knowledge Services (EKS), for the Commonwealth Games (CWG), it has now emerged how rules were changed to favour the "ineligible" firm. Sources have told NDTV that Mr Kalmadi granted the contract to EKS without bids.
The Swiss firm was the technical consultant for the CWG that were held in October 2010. The CBI has named Mr Kalmadi, the former chief of the CWG, and two others in the Rs. 60-crore scam.
According to sources, EKS was being backed by Mr Kalmadi right from the start. So, the consulting firm, in March 2007, was awarded a short-term contract by Mr Kalmadi which came about without any bidding process. The contract was later renewed in June 2007 with EKS walking away with $2 lakh in lieu of its services. In the meanwhile, the company, in May 2007, bid for two more contracts - one was for manpower management consultancy while the other involved risk management. While EKS lost out on the first contract for not fulfilling the eligibility criteria, it bagged the second one. EKS partnered with consulting giant Ernst & Young (E&Y) as part of a consortium to win the second consultancy contract. This is where, the CBI suspects, Kalmadi and Co. stepped in to sway the process in the Swiss firm's favour.
The Organising Committee (OC), headed by the former CWG boss, suspiciously changed the rules of the contract midway to allow EKS to be part of a consortium to enable it to participate in the tendering process. This happened in the Request for Proposal stage - the second step in the bidding process. Ideally, such a provision for a consortium clause should have been introduced in the initial Expression of Interest (EoI) stage when companies are bidding for the tender. The CBI has found further irregularities when the tenders were finally opened. While EKS along with E&Y clinched the contract for Rs. 22 crore, Pricewaterhouse Coopers's (PWC) quotation, way lesser at Rs. nine crore, was ignored - triggering questions of why the OC chose a higher bidder.
The discrepancies don't end there. EKS, which initially was declared ineligible and clearly latched onto E&Y as a smaller partner in the consortium to participate in the bidding process, was finally paid over 60 percent of the Rs. 22 crore-contract amount.
The latest revelations are in a series of scandals that were executed during the sporting extravaganza with Mr Kalmadi being at the helm of affairs. The MP from Pune is already facing charges of allegedly sanctioning an inflated contract worth Rs. 141 crore for timing equipment and scoreboards to a Swiss firm, Rs. 90 crores more than what should have been paid, according to investigators.
He was granted bail by the Delhi High Court on Januray 19. He had been arrested in April last year for alleged corruption - as chairman of the Organising Committee for the Commonwealth Games. The charges against Mr Kalmadi include conspiracy, forgery, misconduct and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. He has been suspended by his party, the Congress, but continues as a member of the Lok Sabha representing Pune.