The Sword of Corruption still hangs over the CWG
The 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games (CWG) finished in spectacular fashion recently but before the Games had started there were reports of corruption in the various construction projects that were awarded to companies.
The controversy around the corruption allegations apparently revolved around construction projects and the companies that they were awarded to. It seems that forged documents were found, secret bank accounts were uncovered, inflated bills were unearthed and government officials were linked to the whole dodgy affair. Well thankfully the Games went off without a hitch and all the athletes have now returned safe and sound to their homes.
Now that they have ended, the real task of unearthing the alleged corruption starts. To this end, the Indian government has put together a task force to uncover the truth. We will have to wait and see what they uncover.
The Commonwealth Games were to highlight the best side of India, show off a modern, vibrant and dynamic India to the world. With massive allegations of corruption swirling around the build up to the Games; India now has to try and find out what exactly happened and provide some answers to the taxpayers who funded the bulk of the payment to set up the Games. If the CWG had been funded totally by an external source then the situation would have been slightly different, it would have been that external source that would have needed answers and would probably have sent an independent team to probe the allegations.
The first thing that alerted suspicion among the organisers was the fact that the budget of the Games, which was originally set at $75 million, ballooned to become nearly $8 billion. If we think about it, $8 billion is a huge amount of money for anything; even $75 million is a lot of money. It was thought that the only reason the budget swelled so much was because of illegal payments and kickbacks on construction projects. Even though at the moment nothing can be said for certain, the committee that has been set up will try and find out if this really did happen.
There were concrete proofs that were found though that really did not look good for the Games organisers. Initial investigations uncovered kickbacks, illegal payments, dodgy offshore companies, forged emails and inflated bills for almost everything that was related to various construction projects. Some reports suggested that even bills for things like toilet paper were inflated. These sorts of payments are usually inflated when someone is getting a cut of the payment or is earning money illegally through the deal.
These reports prompted a former Indian athlete who was on the international committee overseeing the Games, Rajesh Tomar, to say that he felt there was so much corruption that the entire event was one huge waste of time, money and effort. This may have been overly harsh criticism but his anger is understandable.
The delays in finishing the various construction projects seemed to be a result of this very same corruption. The country’s corruption watchdog, the Central Vigilance Commission, found massive irregularities in several construction projects from people not working to the schedule, leaky walls, exposed wires, large piles of rubbish, unfinished roofs and broken tiles. The work was sped up and it was all finished on time, thankfully, but it was touch and go for a few moments there.
The task force that has been set up by the Indian Government will look into which companies were awarded contracts and how they carried out their work. It will also look into who was supervising the work and what they did to ensure the projects were completed on time. It will be a full and in-depth investigation into the Games and where mistakes occurred. Hopefully the government can find out what went wrong and it can make sure nothing of the sort happens again. This needs to be ensured if India has any chance of hosting an even bigger event in the future such as the Olympic Games.
With the government stepping it up and sinking its teeth into the matter, it looks like some heads will roll fairly soon. Corruption in international athletic events is unacceptable and the ability to fix it will impact positively on India in the future.
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