Suresh Kalmadi

New Delhi, Oct. 15: The Prime Minister’s Office today ordered a high-level probe into the allegations of corruption in the organisation of the Commonwealth Games, choosing not to wait even 24 hours after the closing ceremony.

A committee headed by former comptroller and auditor-general V.K. Shunglu will submit its report to the Prime Minister within three months, the PMO said.

It will look into the organisation and conduct of the Games and scrutinise all suspect transactions. Expenses incurred by the Union urban development, sports and tourism & culture ministries, the Delhi government and its agencies, and the Suresh Kalmadi-led organising committee will be scanned.

The terms of reference of the probe panel will be decided later. But sources said it would have the power to utilise the services of any government agency, including the CBI, to find facts.

Kalmadi not invited

Kalmadi and his team were not invited today to the Prime Minister’s reception for the Indian gold medal winners at his 7 Race Course Road residence. Sports minister M.S. Gill was present.

Earlier in the day, the Congress party and sources in the government had said the success of the Games would not shield the organisers from scrutiny because a huge amount of public money had been spent.

“We are satisfied with the successful and secure Games. We congratulate those who won the laurels. It was an amazing performance by the sportspersons. But public money was used and it has to be obviously accounted for,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said.

Tiwari also refused to give credit for the Games’ success to Kalmadi, saying it should go to “the 100 crore people of this country. For anything to succeed, everybody has to make a contribution. It is a collective effort.”

The comptroller and auditor-general of India and the chief vigilance commissioner will continue their routine scan of the Games expenses, and Parliament’s estimates committee and public accounts committee are also studying them.

The CAG, which had put its audit in abeyance for the duration of the Games, today sent its inspectors to the CPWD office inside S.P. Mukherjee Stadium to check the accounts related to Games projects.

Inspection teams will visit other stadiums as well, as part of routine audit.

Sources said Parliament’s estimates committee, headed by Congress MP Francisco Sardinha, had been ready with its interim report but it was not released because the majority opinion was in favour of waiting till the event was over.

The public accounts committee, headed by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, is closely scrutinising the expenses by the ministries of urban development and sports on Games-related work.

Sources said the Enforcement Directorate and the income-tax department were already investigating certain cases on the basis of irregularities cited in earlier CAG reports.

No clean chit

Congress spokesperson Tiwari refused to directly respond to questions about the role of Kalmadi, who is also a party MP, but said: “All allegations should be probed and the guilty brought to book.”

Asked if the Congress was giving a clean chit to Kalmadi, he said: “We are not in the business of giving clean or unclean chits to anybody. All the financial institutions of the government which are responsible for ensuring accountability should do their work properly.”

Sources in the organising committee accused the sports minister of having plotted to keep Kalmadi out of the Prime Minister’s reception today.

The PMO statement on the probe said: “The government has decided to constitute a high-level committee under former CAG V.K. Shunglu to look into all matters relating to the organising and conduct of the Commonwealth Games 2010, New Delhi, including to draw lessons from it.”

The spokesman added that the terms of reference would be announced in a day or two.

Olympic wish

Officials who did not want to be named said India was keen to bid for the 2020 Olympic Games and the PMO’s statement on lessons to be drawn from the Commonwealth Games should be seen in that light. The bidding for 2020 starts in 2013.

“I have a dream of bringing the Olympics, but when I don’t know,” Kalmadi, who also heads the Indian Olympic Association, had said.

But the sports ministry believes India’s bid will suffer if Kalmadi continues to head the Indian Olympic Association, and is expected to renew efforts to dislodge him. It had scrapped Kalmadi’s attempt to get India to bid for the 2019 Asian Games.