New Delhi, Aug 9: Registering the 14th case in the CWG scam, the CBI today booked eight CPWD officials and two companies for alleged irregularities in renovation of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Swimming Pool Complex—one of the projects that drew flak in the recent CAG report.
CBI officials also carried out searches at 16 places in New Delhi, Ghaziabad and Jaipur which yielded “incriminating documents and records”, an official spokesperson said here.
The agency has named Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited and a joint venture between Consulting Engineering Service and Schlaich Bergernann, Germany along with eight officials of CPWD for allegedly jacking up the cost of renovation work of the stadium to over 200 crore.
“The accused officials by artificially jacking up the rates of various items, connived with the private parties and thereby in an irregular and illegal manner helped facilitate award of tender of upgradation and renovation of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Swimming Pool Complex, New Delhi for Commonwealth Games 2010 to the said private firms at exorbitant rate of Rs 229 crore,” spokesperson Dharini Mishra alleged.
The agency has named the then CPWD Project Manager for Commonwealth Games S S Mondal (Retired), Superintendent Engineer Rajendra Kalla, Executive Engineers Manu Mittal and Pradeep Gupta, Assistant Engineers A K Arora, Manish Kumar Rawat and Som Dutt and Junior Engineer Sanjeev Kumar in the criminal conspiracy.
The officials and companies have been slapped with charges of criminal conspiracy and criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
“It is alleged that in pursuance to the said criminal conspiracy, the accused persons by abusing their official position as public servants, in conspiracy with the private parties, considered inadmissible factors to artificially jack up the reasonable price so as to justify the award of work to the said firms,” Mishra said.
The CBI has already registered 13 cases in the irregularities in the conduct of Commonwealth Games and named top Organising Committee Officials including sacked chairman Suresh Kalmadi in some of them.
In its recent report, Comptroller and Auditor General has slammed the contract given to Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited saying the work was “awarded on a lumpsum contract”.
“This work was awarded to Ahluwalia Contracts (India) Limited (ACIL) at the tendered cost of Rs 229.73 crore in December 2007, against an estimated cost of Rs. 176 crores calculated in October 2007. There were also instances of poor quality of work execution,” CAG said.
“We found a number of concessions to the contractor, in deviation from the spirit of the lumpsum contract – large number of extra items, additional payment for work covered in the original contract, as well as substitution of the original galvalume roof with an aluminium roofing system, due to the failure of the contractor,” it said. PTI
