CAG to examine telecast scams

NEW DELHI, MAY 10. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is to examine allegations of scams in telecast of sports events on Doordarshan including those contained in the Arun Agarwal report relating to the erstwhile four-member sports consortium.

This has been conveyed by the CAG in a letter sent to Doordarshan, according to Prasar Bharati chief executive officer R.R. Shah, who said that this showed that there was no attempt to stall any inquiry or shelve the Agarwal report.

In the controversial report which was made public by Agarwal at a press meet in the capital on April 27, serious allegations were made about losses incurred by Doordarshan because of certain deals with regard to the telecast rights of the ICC knock-out tournament in Dhaka in October 1998.

The report revealed that Doordarshan suffered losses running into several crores of rupees from telecasting of several sporting events during 1998-99 either because of some collusion/misappropriation or because of lack of proper planning by Doordarshan officials.

Submitted to the Prasar Bharati board in May last, the report related to sports events in 1998-99 and the working of the sports consortium which had been formed when Mr. S.S. Gill was CEO of Prasar Bharati.

Agarwal, a financial expert who had been appointed for a period of one month on a token fee of Re. 1 by then CEO, O.P. Kejriwal to examine the dealings between Doordarshan and the consortium, charged that these losses appeared to be the result of mismanagement by some members of the sports consortium and Doordarshan officials dealing with them.

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Section  : Sport
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