ED finds more fraud in contracts

The Enforcement Directorate suspects some joint ventures awarded overlay contracts by the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee may have been fraudulently formed. Rajesh Ahuja reports.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) suspects some joint ventures awarded overlay contracts by the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) may have been fraudulently formed.

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The ED has found that in at least one case, a JV that won a bid was not a JV at all, since no written agreement was signed by the partner firms.

Sources said it was also suspected the OC may have tweaked eligibility criteria to suit favoured firms. Furthermore, the list of overpriced items seems to be going up.

The OC awarded contracts worth Rs 600 crore for overlay items such as tents, chairs, refrigerators and umbrellas among many others.

In the case of the Nussli India-Comfortnet JV, a contract worth Rs 150 crore was awarded. But when their representative was called for questioning by the ED, sources said, he could not produce a written agreement.

In another case, the ED was unable to locate the address of Deepali Design and Exhibits, which won the biggest contract, worth Rs 231 crore, in partnership with Pico Global Services of Hong Kong.

Deepali Design and Exhibits was floated by Vinay Mittal, a relative of BJP leader Sudhanshu Mittal, who is under investigation for Games-related financial irregularities.

The ED plans to question the representatives of two more JVs - between D Art Furniture Systems and UK's ESG Arena (Rs 93 crore contract) and one comprising Meroform and GL Services of France (Rs 165 crore).