Mumbai: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Ajay Shirke condemned the state units, which have been accused of financial irregularities.
The recently released Deloitte audit reports revealed some inconsistencies in the books of Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), Goa Cricket Association (GCA), Odisha Cricket Assiation (OCA).
“Hyderabad’s case is known, as also Goa, which didn’t pay their service tax. As for the Odisha Cricket Association (OCA), it’s not a case of funds embezzlement or fraud; but some discrepancies have been found in the Deloitte report about the OCA’s agreement with the local Olympic Association regarding the ownership of assets,” Shirke told The Indian Express.
Shirke also revealed that the Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir associations are under the scanner as well. He said, “Forensic audits couldn’t be done at the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA), Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JCA) and all North-East associates because their current accounts were not available.”
The BCCI secretary emphasised on the fact that the Indian cricket board is not going to extend any financial support to associations that do not have their books in order.
“Let me make it clear, the BCCI is not going to protect any problem association. Long before the SC order, the BCCI stopped their funding,” said Shirke.
“J&K doesn’t get any fund except for whatever cricket matches they hold. They give us an account of the expenses – one special person is deputed in the BCCI who takes the expenses – and the amount is paid directly, with a provison that the payment is made for the (cricket) purpose immediately.”
“Likewise, for the DDCA, all payments have been stopped as also the Goa Cricket Association (GCA). Goa didn’t pay the service tax; we directly paid that to the government and debited it from the state association’s account,” Shirke continued. “We also removed Chetan Dessai (top three officials of the GCA, Dessai, Vinod Phadke and Akbar Mulla were arrested by the Economic Offences Cell of the Goa Police for alleged embezzlement of over Rs 3 crore) from the BCCI marketing committee.
“For Hyderabad we have been following the same system for the last five months. We take all utilisation statements from them. Regarding Orissa, it’s not a case of funds embezzlement, still we are keeping a close watch on them.”
However, Shirke said that the other associations have all been cleared by the Deloitte report, and will receive funds from the BCCI, as per the regulations.
“The BCCI has already taken action against these associations. For the rest, there’s no observation of any misappropriation, bad management, diversion or misuse of funds, or any kind of fraud,” he said. “The majority of the associations got Deloitte grading between 2.6 and 3, confirming stability. It’s for just three-four problem associations the cricket board is getting a bad name.”
