Hotel rooms offered at double the price?
Amid various allegations of corruption during the Commonwealth Games, the CAG and CVC are also believed to be looking into whether the OC offered rooms to various guests at nearly double the price than what was initially offered by the stakeholders. Also the officials are looking whether these rooms were being used for personal purpose by those considered close to the OC members.
Preliminary investigations into the issue has indicated that when the issue of putting up guests at various hotels came up, the tourism ministry had offered to accommodate these guests in hotels with room rates ranging from nearly $100 to about $175. However, the proposal was rejected by the OC, which took it upon itself to negotiate the room rates in a bid to “save OC money”.
A three-member committee was constituted to negotiate various room rate deals with different hotels in order to ensure cheapest deals for the OC guests. However, at the end of the exercise, the committee came up with a room rate of around $300. There were also reports that the rooms were being used by the personal guests of some members of the OC. Source said such things may be taken up seriously as it implied blatant misuse of public money.
A couple of members of the said committee are already under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate and have also been questioned by the agency in connection with various allegations of corruption.
The expenditure by the OC for various big and small items and services is being scrutinised by the CAG and the CVC. While the CAG has said the probe would be completed within three months, the CVC has also asked the OC to retain the samples of all the items procured, bought or hired by it in order to reach a logical conclusion.
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