CAG to complete audit of Games in 3 months

The Comptroller and Auditor-General on Monday decided to complete within three months a comprehensive audit of the Commonwealth Games projects, while officials of the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department braced for investigation into corruption in the projects.

Sources said the ED and the I-T department were likely to issue summons to senior Organising Committee (OC) officials soon as part of their probe.

CAG Vinod Rai said the auditors would complete within three months a comprehensive audit of the projects. It would be confidential and shared only with Parliament.

“We will complete the entire audit process of CWG in three months. It is going to be a gigantic task. At least 20 different organisations will be involved,” he said addressing auditors that included some from abroad.

The sources said the ED and I-T officials were in the final stages of scrutinising the documents they obtained about the Games.

The agencies are also likely to push in for handing over certain documents relating to monetary transactions undertaken by the OC.

Both the investigating agencies have already obtained a “fair amount” of details about the banking transactions undertaken by the Games body.

Simultaneously, the Central Vigilance Commission has widened its probe and put purchase of medical equipment and selection of tainted project officers for the Games under its scanner to look into whether there was corruption in project execution.

On the political front, OC Chairman Suresh Kalmadi and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who were involved in a war of words on corruption in the Games, came face to face at a meeting of the GoM.

The Congress party disapproved the heated exchanges between the two and asked them to observe restraint.

“If we take six to eight months and submit the report in 2012, then the entire purpose of the exercise would be lost. We will ensure that results of the audit are made available at the earliest. It is not only about the expenditures incurred but whether the original activity or the objective are fulfilled,” Mr. Rai said.