OC's ticket to infamy: Rs61cr loss
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) - which is investigating the Commonwealth Games (CWG) scam - has found that its Organising Committee's Executive Board (EB) allegedly ignored internal recommendations that could have led to better revenue generation from the sale of tickets for sporting events and ceremonies.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) - which is investigating the Commonwealth Games (CWG) scam - has found that its Organising Committee's Executive Board (EB) allegedly ignored internal recommendations that could have led to better revenue generation from the sale of tickets for sporting events and ceremonies.
Though the Organising Committee (OC) had projected earnings of R100crore from ticket sales, it generated only Rs39crore - which led to a loss of Rs61crore.
Also, the OC allegedly paid Rs14 crore to delegate the job of managing ticket distribution and sale to three entities, including a private firm.
A CBI source told HT, "OC's Executive Board had followed a revenue-negative approach in distribution of a large number of complimentary tickets, disregarding the demand for priced tickets." The OC had printed and distributed around 11.4lakh tickets, of which around 51% were complimentary and only 49% were priced.
The source added, "This was despite the fact that an official of the Ticketing Functional Area (FA) had recommended that the number of total complimentary tickets should not be more than 3% and sought a restrictive approach to printing and distributing complimentary tickets..." The document had pointed out: "Complimentary tickets result in diminished revenue, which impacts the budget set out by OC"; also, they "discriminate" against spectators who paid for their tickets.
Complimentary tickets "reduced the number of tickets available for the general public," it had said. Further, the EB had formulated its 'Ticketing Policy' only on September 21, 2010 - barely a fortnight ahead of the commencement of the CWG. Only 10% tickets had been sold by then, said the source.
The CBI is likely to file a case pertaining to alleged mismanagement in the distribution and sale of CWG tickets.
The CBI also suspects that a few documents were allegedly prepared "at a later date" to support the actions of a few accused OC officials.