CWG probe: CEO says had to push TSR contract for Games

In a fresh twist to the controversy over the TSR system contract,it has now emerged that CWG Organising Committee CEO Jarnail Singh

In a fresh twist to the controversy over the Timing,Scoring,Result (TSR) system contract,it has now emerged that Commonwealth Games Organising Committee CEO Jarnail Singh and other senior officials had recommended that the deal be awarded to Swiss Timing.

Former OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi has already been arrested for allegedly awarding the TSR contract to Swiss Timing instead of MSL Spain,causing a loss of Rs 95 crore to the exchequer.

Jarnail Singh,Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs nominee in the committee,wrote letters to the Sports Secretary and the Joint Secretary,Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs,explaining and supporting the decision to award the contract.

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Speaking to The Indian Express on Thursday,Singh said: I joined OC on October 16,2009. According to the Games Master Schedule,the TSR contract should have been awarded by February 2009. I had no option. If we had not recommended the Swiss firm,the Games would have failed.

Apart from Kalmadi,the CBI has also arrested Deputy Director General (Procurement) Surjeet Lal and Joint Director General (Sport) A S V Prasad for the irregularities.

In his December 5,2009 letter to Sports Secretary Sindhushree Khullar,Singh had said: Of the two bids received (one from MSL Software and other from Swiss Timing),only Swiss Timing met the pre-qualification benchmark and was accordingly cleared for opening of technical bids…. Chairman OC(Kalmadi) has,however,decided that the entire TSR procurement case,accompanying documents,evaluation reports,request for proposals are now be forwarded to Ministry of Sports for independent evaluation and further direction on next steps.

The Indian Express has a copy of this letter.

Singh also took on Sujit Panigrahi,who as ADG (Technology) in the OC had red-flagged the approval of the contract and later resigned in 2009.

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In his February 18,2010 letter to Rahul Bhatnagar,Joint Secretary,Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs,Singh wrote: Brian Nourse,Technology Consultant,who headed the Technology Department during CWG Melbourne 2006 and Derek Philips,Director (Technology) have clarified that during the pre-qualification evaluation,they never confirmed to Panigrahi that MSL meets the criteria…. Panigrahi had made a statement that the two experts supported his evaluation. In fact,Nurse and Phillips have stated that Swiss Timing is the only service provider who has provided end-to-end delivery of Timing,Scoring and Results equipment and services as the main contractor to the OC for Melbourne CWG and Beijing Olympics 2008.

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