Published>Wed, Aug 04 10 04:38 PM
THE MOST advanced computers are unlikely to cost beyond '60,000 - and that is a fact that everyone except the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) is well aware of.
How else does one explain the fact that the OC paid an astronomical '89,502 per computer as "rent" for 45 days, when it could have easily bought the machines for '50,000-60,000? Headlines Today has unearthed a preposterous scam which highlights the manner in which the taxpayers' money is pocketed by corrupt officials in the name of Commonwealth Games.
And it's not just computers that have been hired at such exorbitant rates.
A liquid soap dispenser, which should not cost more than '460, has been hired for '3,397. The OC has rented 2,883 such units.
Documents of the OC's murky dealings have revealed that it has rented 6,218 six-ampere plug points at '1,219 per unit. But a market survey would easily establish that the maximum a plug point can cost is '75.
As many as 970 pedestal fans have been rented at '4,412 each.
The list price of the most exorbitantly priced fan does not exceed '4,500.
Similarly, the OC is hiring mosquito repellants for '135 each as against their unit price of '100.
Rent for 43 ice-making machines cost the OC about '46 lakh, at '1,06,279 per unit, when these could easily have been purchased for '1.5 lakh.
Beleaguered OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi has denied the charges of corruption but is at a loss to explain the fraud. The deals, after all, took place only after the OC gave the go-ahead.
A list of 500 such items were rented at a total of '650 crore.
The OC, however, remains defiant in the face of all allegations of corruption. It has maintained that it has followed proper procedures and contracts were awarded to the "lowest bidders". "The contracts were allotted on a competitive bidding basis," committee secretary general Lalit Bhanot said.
Reproduced From Mail Today. Copyright 2010. MTNPL. All rights reserved.
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