CBI glare on CWG single-tender contract

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has found that the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) awarded a communication contract - Games News Service (GNS) - to a Dutch firm on a single-tender basis. Abhishek Sharan reports.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has found that the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) awarded a communication contract - Games News Service (GNS) - to a Dutch firm on a single-tender basis.

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The CBI had recently lodged a case over the alleged irregularities linked to the GNS project.

The contract worth over Rs. 9 crore was for producing news and editorial content on the Games and for managing provision of facilities to media contingents covering the event.

"The GNS tender was to be floated on a global basis to allow transparency and optimum participation but it was not," said the source.

A request for proposal was issued on the OC website in January 2010 with no last date for submission. A single bid from the Dutch firm was received, the source said.

Two months later, the OC re-tendered for the contract but again received a single bid from the same firm. In June 2010, the GNS contract was given to the Dutch firm.

The OC had decided for outsourcing the contract instead of going for an internal option as was done in the 2006 Melbourne CWG. The estimated cost of the contract was only around Rs. 56 lakh.

The agency suspects that though the cost of the services rendered by Dutch firm was around Rs. 60 lakh, the OC had paid around Rs. 6.60 crore.