(17 Dec) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that the CBI searched the office of his principal secretary with the intention of acquiring documents relating to an inquiry conducted into the alleged financial irregularities of the DDCA, the cricket association of which Arun Jaitley was president from December 1999 to 2013. On November 12, in the run-up to the India-South Africa Test match, the Delhi govt had set up a three-member panel to probe the allegations levelled against the DDCA. The probe panel members were Principal Secretary (PWD) Chetan B Sanghi, Secretary (Sports) Punya Salil Srivastava and senior standing counsel of Delhi govt Rahul Mehra. In its findings after a two-day probe, the panel highlighted the findings of three reports -the report of a probe panel set up by Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, DDCA’s internal fact-finding panel and the Delhi High Court-appointed panel to oversee the polls of the DDCA’s sports working committee. Twenty plus irregularities, including those in accounting practices, for financial years 2008-09 to 2011-12 when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was the president of the DDCA. * DDCA has weak internal control system, its fixed assets registers are not being maintained. * Major transactions made in cash of over Rs 20,000; transaction and payments were made to directors/ members without approval of Board of Directors and/or Central government. *
It took nearly 5 years to reconstruct Feroz Shah Kotla stadium from 2002 to 2007. The initial budget was Rs 24 crore, but it eventually cost Rs 114 crore. * No proper records of contracts issued for the stadium’s construction. * Unauthorised construction was done without permission from MCD and Delhi Urban Arts Commission. * The DDCA has constructed corporate boxes without appropriate approvals. “It is also observed that during the period under inspection, Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble MP, and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha is also the president of the DDCA, and presiding over the meetings of the executive committee (board of directors) like a non-executive chairman without involvement in day-to-day affairs of the company” – SFIO Report * Proof of “huge financial irregularity”. * Spurious and illegitimate payments were made to certain firms in 2013-14. * The association is overstaffed; still a lot of money has been spent on hiring superfluous workers. * Largescale payments were made in the form of overtime. * Payments were made to nine firms which, on investigation, turned out to have the same registered office, same e-mail IDs as well as common directors. * Duplicate bills were issued and the reasons for payments are falsified. * Payments were made to companies that have never done any job/work or assignment. * There is acute lack of transparency in the working of the DDCA. * Members were illegally running private cricket academies under the umbrella of DDCA and minting money. * No scope for students, genuine players to participate in DDCA matches
