The Organising Committee (OC) of the Commonwealth Games, which has so far been blamed for excessive spending has received an unlikely windfall. The OC has received a VAT refund of `49 lakhs on payments made to the London-based AM Films for the Queen’s Baton Relay (QBR).
Interestingly, the QBR contracts awarded to London-based firms — AM Films and AM Car & Van Hire — is already being investigated by the CBI. The agency has booked three former officials of the OC on charges of forgery and cheating in connection with alleged irregularities in payments during the QBR held in London in 2009.
The agency also booked Ashish Patel (director of the London-based AM Films and AM Car & Van Hire) and other unknown persons in this connection.
Earlier, when the OC had made a claim for the refunds from the United Kingdom authorities in 2010, the latter had refused the payment saying the vouchers furnished by AM Films were not genuine. Further, the British revenue and customs department had also written a letter to the Indian high commission in London, saying there were discrepancies in the payment of this money by the OC. The UK authorities also pointed out loopholes in the contract awarded to AM Films in London.
Sources in the CBI said, “Probe by the agency has already established that there was no written contract between the OC and AM Films. Certain OC officials made a payment of £1.46 lakh to AM Films in London without taking approval of the executive board.”
Now, the OC recently received a payment of Rs 49.84 lakh (£68,726) from the revenue and customs department of the United Kingdom government. The payment was made to the OC on June 13 as VAT refund for the payments made to AM Films in London, sources said.
The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which are investigating irregularities in awarding of contracts to the AM Films and AM Cars, have been left wondering as to how the payment was made two years after the completion of the event that was marred in controversies.
Sources said that it might be possible that now the payments have been made to British authorities and on that basis the foreign authorities decide to refund the VAT claims to OC. “But then the question is who made the payment to British authorities now?” sources asked.
Confirming the development, a senior official of the OC, said, “The payment has indeed been received. It is totally surprising”. The question everybody is asking in the OC is who made the VAT payments to British authorities now, he said. The matter has been brought to the notice of the CBI and the ED, the central agencies which are probing QBR case, sources added.