Jarnail Singh joined the OC as its CEO in the latter half of 2009 and his role was to ensure that preparations for the Games were on schedule.
NEW DELHI: Two letters from Jarnail Singh, the PMO's appointee in the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee, strongly supporting the controversial Timing, Scoring, Results (TSR) contract to Swiss Timing have come under the CBI's scanner. The OC chief Suresh Kalmadi has been arrested by the agency for this case.
The contract has been questioned because the eligibility criteria were fixed in such a way that only one company, Swiss Timing, could have benefited from it. It was also alleged that an inflated price of Rs 141 crore was paid to the company.
Minutes of various meetings of the OC, convened from early 2009, indicate that some members of the OC, including secretary general Lalit Bhanot, had made up their minds months ago that Swiss Timing would get the TSR contract.
Jarnail Singh joined the OC as its CEO in the latter half of 2009 and his role was to ensure that preparations for the Games were on schedule. While he had to balance delivery speed with financial integrity but his two letters, written to sports ministry officials on December 5, 2009 and again on February 15, 2010, show that he was aggressively pushing the TSR deal with Swiss Timing.
The TSR deal was first questioned in a letter signed by a woman, Sangita Goyal, who claimed to be the convener of Anti-Corruption Trust based in Noida. It was brought to the notice of both the OC and the sports ministry. The then sports secretary, Sindhushree Khullar, demanded to know from the OC what it had to say about the matter raised by Goyal.
In his response to Khullar on December 5, Singh recounted how the OC had sent over two officials to Goyal's address only to find a different person residing there. He said: "The investigation by the OC officers clearly establishes that the person (Sangita Goyal) and the trust (Anti-Corruption Trust) are fictitious and the email has been circulated with malicious intent of derailing the TSR procurement process."
Singh seems to be in complete agreement with the OC's decision in favour of Swiss Timing. He wrote: "As the case documents confirm; of the two bids received (one from M/s MSL Software and the other from M/s Swiss Timing Omega), only M/s Swiss Timing Omega met the pre-qualification benchmark and were accordingly cleared for opening of technical bids as per procedure."
In fact, Singh pleaded for speed arguing that appointment of the TSR service provider was "a time-critical decision, which is behind schedule by over six months."
In another letter written by him to joint secretary (sports) R Bhatnagar on February 15, 2010, Singh defended the decision in favour of Swiss Timing yet again. He wrote: "I would like to state that the award on contract to M/s Swiss Timing for TSR has been the subject of intense scrutiny right from the inception stage of this tender."
He pointed out how the deal had been studied in detail by the OC's finance committee which had two senior government officials, the finance sub-committee, which was chaired by secretary (urban development) and also by the executive board of the OC which had several senior government officials besides the president and the CEO of the Commonwealth Games Federation.
Repeated attempts to contact Jarnail Singh for his comments failed. For quite some time, Suresh Kalmadi has been insisting that he alone should not be made to bear the entire responsibility for the alleged financial malpractices that happened during the organization of the Games as other senior people were a party to the decisions. Now that he is in the custody, he is expected to refer to these correspondences to plead his case.
The contract has been questioned because the eligibility criteria were fixed in such a way that only one company, Swiss Timing, could have benefited from it. It was also alleged that an inflated price of Rs 141 crore was paid to the company.
Minutes of various meetings of the OC, convened from early 2009, indicate that some members of the OC, including secretary general Lalit Bhanot, had made up their minds months ago that Swiss Timing would get the TSR contract.
Jarnail Singh joined the OC as its CEO in the latter half of 2009 and his role was to ensure that preparations for the Games were on schedule. While he had to balance delivery speed with financial integrity but his two letters, written to sports ministry officials on December 5, 2009 and again on February 15, 2010, show that he was aggressively pushing the TSR deal with Swiss Timing.
The TSR deal was first questioned in a letter signed by a woman, Sangita Goyal, who claimed to be the convener of Anti-Corruption Trust based in Noida. It was brought to the notice of both the OC and the sports ministry. The then sports secretary, Sindhushree Khullar, demanded to know from the OC what it had to say about the matter raised by Goyal.
In his response to Khullar on December 5, Singh recounted how the OC had sent over two officials to Goyal's address only to find a different person residing there. He said: "The investigation by the OC officers clearly establishes that the person (Sangita Goyal) and the trust (Anti-Corruption Trust) are fictitious and the email has been circulated with malicious intent of derailing the TSR procurement process."
Singh seems to be in complete agreement with the OC's decision in favour of Swiss Timing. He wrote: "As the case documents confirm; of the two bids received (one from M/s MSL Software and the other from M/s Swiss Timing Omega), only M/s Swiss Timing Omega met the pre-qualification benchmark and were accordingly cleared for opening of technical bids as per procedure."
In fact, Singh pleaded for speed arguing that appointment of the TSR service provider was "a time-critical decision, which is behind schedule by over six months."
In another letter written by him to joint secretary (sports) R Bhatnagar on February 15, 2010, Singh defended the decision in favour of Swiss Timing yet again. He wrote: "I would like to state that the award on contract to M/s Swiss Timing for TSR has been the subject of intense scrutiny right from the inception stage of this tender."
He pointed out how the deal had been studied in detail by the OC's finance committee which had two senior government officials, the finance sub-committee, which was chaired by secretary (urban development) and also by the executive board of the OC which had several senior government officials besides the president and the CEO of the Commonwealth Games Federation.
Repeated attempts to contact Jarnail Singh for his comments failed. For quite some time, Suresh Kalmadi has been insisting that he alone should not be made to bear the entire responsibility for the alleged financial malpractices that happened during the organization of the Games as other senior people were a party to the decisions. Now that he is in the custody, he is expected to refer to these correspondences to plead his case.
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