London: The record of wrongdoings at the Indian High Commission in London has got worse as an audit report suggests that huge sums of money lost were due to corruption or negligence.
The report says that the High Commission spent Rs 125 crore on a lease for the Commissioner's residence. What is more shocking is that out of this, Rs 1.7 crore was wasted on a lease for a wrong alternative location.
Other than that, Rs 1 crore was spent on meeting repair and legal costs on a rented accommodation occupied by the previous high commissioner; Rs 2.4 crore and Rs 2 crore were spent to cover the loss over failure to claim VAT refund and the loss over improperly contracted conversion of flats into apartments in East Lane WS; and Rs 3.6 crore was spent to cover undue benefits over contracting out of visas.
The report also talks about the highly inflated car and taxi rental bills for the course of the Commonwealth Games, particularly the Queen's Baton Relay held in London in 2009.
The report also says that in the last two years, some of the people who carried out the work for the High Commission in the past were discharged. They now allege that they were discharged because they could not continue paying commissions.
Questions are now being raised over certain flats under construction for the High Commission. In includes concerns over the process of inviting tenders to the cost of goods and services.
(with inputs from Sanjay Suri)
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