Commonwealth Games chief plans to send 'SoS' to PM

NEW DELHI: Raising serious questions over the ability of the 2010 Delhi Games Organising Committee to hold the mega event, Commonwealth Games
Federation president Michael Fennell said he would seek Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention to try and save the Games from becoming a fiasco.

In a damning letter sent on Sunday to the executive board of the 2010 Games Organising committee (OC), which is headed by Indian Olympic Association (IOA) chief Suresh Kalmadi, Fennell said he was worried over the OC's ability to stage the event to standards set by the last two editions of the Games, in Manchester and Melbourne.

"With only a year to run until the Games, I feel I must personally brief the Prime Minister of India on the lack of preparations and to seek his input in developing an appropriate recovery plan," Fennell wrote in the letter, a copy of which is with TOI. A report by CAG pointing out several loopholes had been published by TOI in its edition dated August 20.

"As you know, I have asked the chairman of the Organising Committee (Kalmadi) to facilitate such a meeting on my return to Delhi in early October for our General Assembly," added Fennel, who was in the Capital only last week for a board meeting.

Fennel's fear seems to have come in the wake of a damning evaluation report by the CAG. It has been also learnt that Fennell was not quite happy with the responses he was getting from the OC regarding the preparations for the Games. Various arms of the government have been worried by the progress, or lack of it, in the Games' preparation. PMO has been keeping a close tab and so has the sports ministry.

While Kalmadi was not available for comment, the MP has consistently insisted that preparations were on track. But his claims might now be in for much closer scrutiny with less than a year to go for the prestigious event that will be a showpiece for not just Delhi but the UPA government as well.

The CAG observed that in at least 13 of the 19 sporting venues, the work shortfall was between 25% and 50%. Fennell also called for a significant change in the management culture and operation of the organising committee without which "the games will fail from an operational perspective."

"The vast majority of functional areas are considerably behind schedule, the procurement processes within the Organising Committee are stagnant and the lack of empowerment of functional area management is retarding process."

The CGF president said that though he was supportive from a public point of view, but in reality "the federation (CGF) has consistently expressed serious concerns to the OC on preparations for the Games."
Referring to the CGF's Coordination Commission report, which as issued to OC in June this year, he said his federation was yet to receive a formal response.

"Whilst there's no doubting the commitment of the various stakeholders involved in the delivery of the Games, our main concern relates to the capacity of the OC to deliver operationally, as I said at the board meeting the preparations for the Games are significantly behind, so much so, that the CGF is extremely worried about the OC's ability to deliver the Games to any comparable standard to that of the last two editions," he wrote.

"The government of India has committed significant resources towards the operational delivery of the Games (Rs 1620 crore) and as I said at the meeting it would be irresponsible and negligent of the Federation not to share its concerns openly with the government."

Several calls to Kalmadi went unanswered and OC secretary general Lalit Bhanot said he was unaware of any such letter coming from Fennell. "As of yesterday we had received no such letter. So I am not in a position to say anything about it to you."
Source:: timesofindia