New Delhi, April 01: The V K Shunglu Committee report has criticised the CWG’s Organising Committee (OC) for hiring Shashi Tharoor, former Union Minister for State, as a consultant for hefty amounts without justifying his corresponding role and work.
According to the committee, he was paid ($26,629) by cheque after deduction of tax on July 6, 2009. Additionally, Rs 4,34,710 was paid for his air fare. The committee indicates that Tharoor has been paid some more money by the OC. ‘’It is seen again from a letter similar to the one dated July 25, 2008, from Shashi Tharoor, this time dated March 7, 2009, addressed to the Organising Committee indicating his attendance fees for 12 days during September 2008 and January 2009 as $30,000 and requested for depositing the amount in his bank account in Dubai,” says the committee’s report.
‘’Since only the copies of these above mentioned letters were provided, the management was requested to provide the original letters from Shashi Tharoor. Besides, the management was requested to provide a copy of the consultancy contract with the ToR (Terms of Reference) and deliverables and the functional head to whom he was attached and if any document was prepared by him as part of the consultancy contract. Till the date of this report, these documents have not been furnished,” alleges the committee.
‘’When Shashi Tharoor was contacted for details of his travels in connection with the consultancy, he informed on February 4, 2011, inter alia that ‘I was consultant for international and national engagement and promotion of the youth games, not the CWG itself’ and that ‘the consultancy fee charged for was token sum, far below the fee that I used to command per speech as a speaker,’’ says the report on Tharoor’s justification for charging the money from the OC.
–Agencies