10 years after Commonwealth Games, government pays only Rs 7 crore to arbitrators: Report

Exactly 10 years after India hosted the Commonwealth Games, the government has paid only about Rs 7 crore to the arbitrators. Apart from this, 50 cases of payment remain in dispute while the 40-crore decorative aerostat has been left unused since the Games, The Indian Express reported.

In response to an RTI, the report said that Rs 6.92 crore has been paid to the arbitrators while no information on the total amount owed to the contractors by the government involving the 50 disputes was provided by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

The 50 cases involve 33 vendors, individuals and authorities including Customs and Tax departments.

According to an audit report of the Games by the Comptroller and Auditor General, the 33 entities include Swiss Timing, which was handed a contract worth Rs 135.27 crore, Nussli India, whose contract was about Rs 140 crore and Electronics Corporation of India, whose contract was approved at Rs 346 crore.

The Rs 40 crore decorative aerostat which has been gathering dust at the stadium where it is stored even though people, including the former Sri Lankan President, had expressed interest in it.

“Many people were willing to take it, including the (then) Sri Lankan President. We had also offered it to the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) but they were not willing (to take it)," said the former organising committee chief executive Jarnail Singh.

According to the CAG report, the estimated cost of the Commonwealth Games had increased from Rs 297 crore (May 2003) to Rs 18, 532.31 crore (October 2010).

The final bill of the Commonwealth Games has not been released by the Ministry.