New Delhi: The Shunglu Committee has faulted the sacked chief of Commonwealth Games organising body Suresh Kalmadi and his aides over award of contracts saying there was "extreme concentration of powers at the top" and "conflict of interest" among OC officials.
The two-member High Level Committee, headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General V K Shunglu, in its fresh report, also upbraided several government agencies for causing losses of over Rs 1,600 crore in executing projects.
The HLC, which went into the complaints of alleged corruption and irregularities in the conduct of sporting extravaganza, said the OC had serious governance problems due to an unwieldy general body with 500 members and a "subservient" executive board.
"The OC was synonymous with the Chairman. Extreme concentration of power at the top ensured that decision making remained concentrated in the hands of the Chairman and his coterie of loyal senior management.
"Extreme conflict of interest was inherent in key officials of IOA holding senior position in OC," the report said questioning the decision making procedures adopted by Kalmadi.
The Committee found that the tone at the top (of the OC) created a situation where wrong doing was common and best practices were not encouraged.
"Accountability, internal and external was not the norm. The Executive Board hardly exercised its governance role and often delegated responsibility to the Executive Management Committee to the point of abdication of responsibility.
Consequently all key decisions were taken by handful of powerful loyalists of the Chairman (Kalmadi)," the Committee said.
It found that recruitment of key positions in the Secretariat and the senior leadership positions was not based on merit and most of them had no games time experience. Any dissent was not tolerated.
"Many senior positions were filled up with persons of questionable integrity and past records of vigilance cases. Government instructions were flouted in posting of staff in sensitive positions," it said.
The panel questioned "coterie style" of management in the OC which created extreme disharmony and dysfunction and often the interpersonal feud would spill over to affect the smooth operations and monitoring of the progress of work.
"There was no effective vigilance and internal audit to provide watch dog function and promote compliance of propriety and ethical norms or efficiency," the HLC said.
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