Hyderabad: The state finance department has been keeping tabs on the spending for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which has been very lavish. The funds sanctioned for the event are evaporating fast, as departments vie with each other to put on a good show. This disregard for conserving public money is worrying finance department functionaries. For example, the industries department proposes to gift two Pochampally silk saris and a diamond necklace to Ivanka Trump and a pair of handloom clothes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Handloom clothes will also be presented to all delegates and volunteers — Pochampally sarees for women and kurta-pajamas for men. Around 500 women volunteers have been roped in and all will get a Pochampally saree. They have been asked to wear the locally made saree during the summit as the industries department feels this will give it international recognition. Costly gifts items and mementoes depicting the Charminar, T-Hub, and Golconda Fort will be presented to all the invitees. Similarly, Rs 500 crore have been sanctioned to spruce up the city.
Moreover, the companies executing some of the work for the summit have been chosen by state officials, without tenders being floated, leaving no scope for price bargaining to save public money. For example, Rs 50 crore was spent within a week on ‘beautification.’ The government sanctioned another Rs 8 crore, which too was spent in no time and now the finance department is receiving requests for more funds. An amount of Rs 500 crore has been sanctioned to spruce up the city and undertake development work, in June. These funds were spent by individual departments like municipal administration, GHMC, HMDA etc. As the deadline for the GES nears, the finance department is flooded with requests for more funds and its officials are upset at this lavish spending.
