Author: A Surya Prakash
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 23, 2011
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/362744/Dr-Singh-and-Mr-Hyde.html
It is astounding that a Prime Minister who
presides over limitless corruption in the Government he heads should be referred
to as a man of integrity!
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, we are often
reminded, is a great economist and a man of integrity. Despite mounting allegations
of corruption and the general opinion that he heads the most corrupt Government
this country has seen since independence, these eulogies have sustained him
in office and he has, until now, not faced much of a threat from within the
Congress or outside.
Is the Prime Minister really worthy of all
the encomiums that are showered on him by his admirers and those who eke out
a living working for the Government he heads? Let us examine some of the broad
conclusions drawn by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India in his report
on the Commonwealth Games held in Delhi last October and see whether Mr Singh's
so-called personal integrity or his understanding of economics has helped
us one bit as a nation.
Delhi won the bid to host CWG-2010 in November
2003. The Union Government and all other entities, therefore, had seven years
to build the infrastructure and host the games and Mr Singh, as Prime Minister,
had the key responsibility to supervise the preparations from May 2004. He
never got down to constituting an apex body at the Government level to supervise
the games. Second, the initial years were marked by procrastination. Every
entity responsible for the games thought that it had a lot of time on its
hands.
The CAG fired the first warning shot in July
2009, 15 months before the games, and told the Union Government that there
was need "to rethink the governance model for the games project…"
The auditors warned that there could be no further slippages and delays if
the games were to be held as scheduled. But, as the nation has belatedly realised,
Mr Singh did not pay heed to the CAG's warning.
The CAG has now presented a comprehensive
audit of the Commonwealth Games from May 2003 to December 2010. This report
constitutes a stinging indictment of the Prime Minister. Just two examples
are enough to show how responsible Mr Singh was while dealing with this issue.
In May 2003, the bid document said the Organising Committee of the games would
be a Government-owned registered society with the chairman of the board being
a Government appointee.
However, when the OC was finally set up in
February 2005, it was a non-Government registered society with Suresh Kalmadi,
then president of the Indian Olympic Association, as the chairman. Shockingly,
the CAG says Kalmadi was appointed as OC chairman on the basis of a recommendation
from Mr Manmohan Singh's office. The Prime Minister's Office overruled the
objections of the then Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Sunil Dutt,
while promoting Kalmadi. This decision of Mr Singh converted the OC into a
body outside Government control. Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, who was the Minister
for Youth Affairs and Sports in 2007, and Mr SK Arora, the Secretary in the
Department, also highlighted the lack of Government control over the OC, but
the Prime Minister did not listen to them either.
When thousands of crores of public money was
being spent, why did not Mr Singh ensure that the games projects were properly
monitored and the OC was in Government's control? Why and at whose behest
did he overrule two Ministers for Youth Affairs and Sports and allow a private
entity to gobble up public funds? These questions have been in the public
mind since the CAG report was tabled in Parliament, but the Prime Minister
seems to be on a maun vrat.
In the absence of a single point of authority
and accountability and the lack of a clear governance structure, there was
all-round chaos. Finally, some steps were take in August 2010 but by then
scandalous stories and photographs of filthy toilets, garbage heaps and water-logging
in the Games Village were hitting the headlines across the world, making India
a laughing stock. So, should we not hold Mr Singh, the man at the helm, accountable?
Yet, there are people in this country who believe that Mr Singh should not
be called to account. Why? Because he is great economist and his personal
integrity cannot be questioned.
The second example relates to money matters,
but if you presume that the economist in Mr Singh will protect our national
interest, you could be terribly wrong. Generally speaking, even run-of-the-mill
economists are good with figures, but just see the kind of leadership Mr Singh
gave us when the CWG work was on. The CAG has said that the Union Government
did not have "a clear and realistic assessment" of the estimated
cost of hosting the games. The Indian Olympic Association estimated an all-inclusive
cost of Rs 1,200 crore, but the overall cost of CWG 2010 for the Union Government,
the Delhi Government and other agencies was Rs 18,532 crore! This means the
cost of CWG spiralled to15 times the original cost.
On the other hand, let us see what became
of the revenue the country was supposed to earn from the games. The OC consistently
claimed that that the cost of hosting the CWG would be revenue neutral, meaning
that the Government would recover all that it spent on the games. However,
the auditors found that this claim of revenue neutrality was never supported
by robust revenue projections. For example in March 2007 the OC claimed that
the revenue from the games would be Rs 900 crore, but by July 2008, it said
the games would generate a revenue of Rs 1,780crore - that is double of what
it had projected a year earlier.
This was done by inflating the projections
for sponsorship revenue and donations because the OC wanted more money from
the Government. However, since the Prime Minister had over-ruled the idea
of Government control over the OC, the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports
could not challenge the OC's claims. Eventually when the games got over, the
auditors found that after deducting revenue generating costs all that the
OC had earned by way of revenue was a paltry Rs 173.96 crore, which was less
than 10 per cent of the Rs 1,780 crore it said it would earn.
Does this not amount to criminal misrepresentation?
Should not the Prime Minister, who allowed Kalmadi to hoodwink everybody on
this score, be held responsible? When such questions are raised, we are told
the Prime Minister is a great economist and his personal integrity is above
reproach!
