CAG report slams PMO for appointing Kalmadi as CWG boss

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in its report on the corruption and fiascos leading up to the Commonwealth Games last year, has blamed the prime minister's office (PMO) for appointing Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi as the chief of the games organising committee, media reports said today.

The CAG report, which is yet to be officially made public, holds the PMO responsible for overturning the 2004 decision of the group of ministers (GoM) to appoint the then sports minister as the head of the committee, sources added.

Kalmadi was only supposed to be the vice-chairman.

The CAG refers to late Sunil Dutt, the then sports minister, according to whom the prime minister was part of the GoM, which took the decision. However, the decision was later changed and Kalmadi was made the committee chief. This decision perturbed Dutt, who wrote to the prime minister asking him to look into the matter.

The PMO has, meanwhile, sought to distance itself from the decision to appoint Kalmadi. The NDA government led by Atal Behari Vajpayee was in power when India's bid for the Commonwealth Games was accepted and the present PMO had no hand in the decision to appoint Kalmadi, officials in the PMO told the media.

They said the NDA had signed the agreement with the CWG Federation in 2003 and the agreement said that the Indian Olympics Association (IOA) president would be the CWG organising committee chief.

The CAG report claims that the PMO gave a free rein to Kalmadi on expenses, enabling him to decide on the expenditure for CWG projects. The report says Kalmadi had control over nearly Rs2,000 crore budget for the games.