Claims and counter-claims have flown thick and fast over the last several days in the lead-up to Sunday’s elections to the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA).

Deccan United Cricket Club had released a booklet titled ‘Is This Transparency?' earlier in the week, offering documentary proof to substantiate claims of lack of transparency during secretary Brijesh Patel’s tenure. Patel had countered those charges the following day, but DUCC executive president Ashok Raghavan reiterated that there was more to the said transactions than met the eye.

Countering the charge that KSCA had transactions upwards of Rs 47 lakh with Composite Travels, Patel had said they had been to the tune of only Rs 9 lakh last year.

“In our document, we have mentioned clearly that between 2001 and 2007, the total amount paid to Composite Travel was Rs 47,90,052. He has intelligently quoted the figure only for one particular year,” Raghavan said.

“The figure we mentioned was given by the honorary secretary of the KSCA himself when our club representatives, including myself, met him on May 26, 2007 on the related-party transaction issue.

Two months later, on August 4, DUCC also received a letter from KSCA clearly admitting having paid 48,40501 during that period. The yearwise break-up is: 2001-02: Rs 1,13,551; 2002-03: Rs 11,19,879; 2003-04: Rs 1,76,491; 2004-05: Rs 12,72,508; 2005-06: Rs 11,90,815; 2006-07: Rs 9,16,808.” Raghavan added that the contention that bylaws did not prohibit the association from transacting business with its members did not hold any water.

Benefit

“Transactions by any association with its members which benefit the member directly or indirectly are specifically prohibited by the Memorandum of Association and the Rules of the Association itself.

The MoA of the KSCA is clear that no portion of the income, funds or property of the association shall be paid or transferred directly or indirectly by way of dividends, profits, bonus or otherwise howsoever to the members of the association. This is a clause of wide ramifications, it covers literally every single type of payment which can be routed to a member.

"More importantly, this clause is a must for anybody to be registered under the Societies Registration Act, in which KSCA is a registered body. Section 3 of that act has a clause similar to that in the MoA of KSCA. If any act has been done which contravenes this, it is both void and illegal. The argument that there is nothing in the bylaws cannot be bought.”

Asked what his primary grouse was against transactions Patel insists benefited the KSCA financially, Raghavan replied, “Any person who occupies an honorary office should preserve and protect the integrity of that office.

The word honorary has no meaning if the argument is proffered that bylaws allow us to do business with ourselves. You cease to be honorary from that very moment. Even if the bylaws argument is bought, then the best way to go about this is to bid for all honorary posts in all associations in India.

"The question is not what the increase in revenue is. It is whether proper systems and procedures were adopted for awarding the contract (for in-stadia advertising to Sporting Frontiers).

“BN Subramanya, who Brijesh claims was there only to promote the company in a professional capacity, was a shareholder of that company in February 2001 when the contract was awarded.

“He was also a shareholder in August 2004 when the contract was renewed. It is common knowledge that it is the shareholders who benefit from the revenues earned by a company.”