CBI lodges fresh case in CWG scam

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing corruption linked to the conduct of Commonwealth Games (CWG) by its Organising Committee (OC), on Thursday lodged a case over alleged irregularities in the award of the multi-crore technical consultancy contracts to a Swiss firm, HT reports.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing corruption linked to the conduct of Commonwealth Games (CWG) by its Organising Committee (OC), on Thursday lodged a case over alleged irregularities in the award of the multi-crore technical consultancy contracts to a Swiss firm.

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Five such contracts were given to the firm — Event Knowledge Services (EKS) —without allegedly seeking a mandatory approval from a Group of Ministers (GoM) panel, said a CBI source. The OC officials allegedly awarded three of these contracts on nomination basis without initiating a competitive bidding process, said the source.

Tendering conditions for the other two contracts were allegedly tweaked to favour the Swiss firm, said the source. The contracts were worth around R71 crore. The CBI will also verify the need for multiplicity of the contracts.

The First Information Report named a few top OC officials and the EKS as accused for the alleged irregularities.

The CBI had probed the irregularities earlier after lodging a preliminary enquiry complaint. The agency has filed 19 CWG cases so far to probe irregularities.

"The Swiss firm was awarded the CWG contract without seeking the requisite approval and floating of a tender for one of its components. The contract included work related to monitoring of the venue development, games' workforce services and games' planning project and risk management services," said the source.

The CBI is looking into allegations that the firm was allegedly favoured because a former CWG Federation official had recommended it.

The OC's Executive Board (EB) had awarded the EKS consultancy contract and its members are under the CBI scanner.