Corruption unlimited! Rs2,342 crore lost on Commonwealth Games

Corruption, negligence and irregularities in organising the 2010 Commonwealth Games has cost the nation more than Rs2,300 crore, according to the CAG report.

A day after the CAG tabled its report on the CWG scam, DNA undertook an exercise to compute the loss caused to the exchequer due to acts of commission and omission by all the principal characters involved in this murky episode.

A team of reporters hit the 743-page report and it seems that the CWG cost the public a whopping Rs2,342 crore — that is Rs195 crore lost per day to corruption, negligence and other sundry irregularities. This is only the loss caused to the nation — not the total cost of the Games.

This means, had Suresh Kalmadi, his colleagues in the organising committee, the officials of the Sheila Dikshit-led Delhi government and the union urban development ministry done an honest job, this money could have been put to better use. Perhaps more villages would have got drinking water, or more schools could have been built.

Instead, Rs2,342 crore went either to some corrupt pockets or, at best, was criminally wasted. Perhaps had the prime minister’s office heeded the advice and protests of senior cabinet ministers like the then sports minister, Sunil Dutt, or his successor Mani Shankar Aiyar, India could have prevented this loss. DNA calculated this sum on the basis of areas identified by the CAG as cases of “clear loss, extra, wasteful, unfruitful, infructuous or avoidable expenditure”.

The OC and the Delhi government’s inability to levy penalties for delays in carrying out works by erring contractors as enshrined in the contracts was also used to calculate this loss.

Deputy CAG Rekha Gupta on Friday said they were yet to quantify the total loss. But it is important to arrive at a definite figure to understand the enormity of the loss that a 12 day-sporting event could cause to a nation. 

For, the Games was supposed to be an event that would showcase India to the world.