DD admits to being arm-twisted by SIS Live in CWG broadcast contract
23 Oct 2010
State-owned broadcaster Doordarshan (DD) on Friday denied any wrong-doing in the award of a Rs246 crore Commonwealth Games contract to UK-based SIS Live, rubbishing allegations of corruption.
Describing the allegations as 'baseless,' Aruna Sharma, director-general, DD, claimed that the entire process of awarding the contract was transparent and all the government norms had been followed.
The Income-Tax department has raised several objections relating to alleged irregularities in the payment of service tax. There are fears that the company allegedly evaded payment of Rs29 crore in taxes. The Information & Broadcasting ministry had also reportedly objected to the award of the contract to the British firm by the autonomous Prasar Bharati (PB), which controls Doordarshan.
According to government sources, SIS Live forced PB to change the terms of payment by threatening at the last-minute to walk out of the arrangement, just before the Commonwealth Games. The ministry had to agree to the payment of 60 per cent of the contracted amounted in advance, as against 30 per cent that had been agreed earlier.
DD has admitted that it cleared four invoices of SIS Live amounting to Rs147.6 crore, which works out to 60 per cent of the contract value. The broadcaster also said that the British firm did not have a valid service tax number for the first two invoices, but got a permanent registration towards the end of September.
With the Games now over, DD is apparently trying to withhold the balance payment of nearly Rs100 crore until the British firm is able to sort out matters and convince its critics that there had been no wrong-doing. SIS Live will also have to clear all the pending taxes and satisfy the tax officials before getting the final payment.
While the Commonwealth Games were held successfully in Delhi earlier this month, the event has been over-shadowed by widespread allegations of corruption and bungling on the part of the organising committee, the Delhi Development Authority, the Urban Development Ministry and the Delhi government.