HCA audit unearths grave wrongdoings and frauds

The Supreme Court appointed Lodha committee has made life tough for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) top brass and has also reached out to various state associations. Lodha panel had asked the BCCI to hand over audit report of state associations affiliated with the board who are allocated funds for various reasons.

BCCI appointed accounting firm Deloitte to scrutinize the books of the associations till 31st March 2015 and as per the Indian Express there are grave wrongdoings unearthed after the audit in the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA). Some of the dotted transactions revealed go like, payment was made to two travel agencies for booking the same flight for the junior team, furniture and laptops stated in the records were found missing, electricity theft, executive committee members were gifted gold coins.

The HCA audit report that was accessed by The Indian Express details other deviations like obtaining and repaying unsecured short-term loans from ‘unknown’ individuals and committee members, forged cheques, irregularities between real and budgeted amounts, and to top it off Rs 24.30 crore was spent on building a canopy at  the Uppal Stadium in Hyderabad.

The report also has mentions of the anti-corruption bureau’s proceedings against the HCA, for alleged irregularities that amount to Rs 87.91 crore.

Talking about the same, BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke said, “The problem are still there. Some of these associations have got internal fights. But it’s not a case of the BCCI cracking down hard on them. If they don’t put things in order, they will face the consequences. I commissioned a second Deloitte report on all problem associations, including Hyderabad, about a month-and-half ago. Some improvement was seen in terms of accounts, audits and removing discrepancies,” he said.

HCA secretary John Manoj avoided commenting and said, “It is an internal matter of the association and whatever we have to give, we have given to the BCCI and as per their norm they will look into it. It’s an internal matter between the BCCI and Hyderabad Cricket Association and I don’t want to disclose anything further,” he said.