New Delhi:
On his first day at his new job as Sports Minister, Ajay Maken is coping with a major international embarrassment for India on account of the Commonwealth Games and the team that organized it.
Australian firms are threatening to sue the Organizing Committee, which was chaired by Suresh Kalmadi, because they have still not been paid for the services they provided. They claim their equipment has also not been returned to them.
(Read: Official response from Suresh Kalmadi)Maken said today that he has asked officials to verify the bills and resolve any outstanding payments immediately.
(Read: Australian company to sue CWG organisers over unpaid bills) Maken's promise comes after Australian media reported that at least four of the country's biggest event firms planned to sue the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee in Delhi for millions of dollars.
The issue also dogged External Affairs SM Krishna who is currently on an official trip to Australia. The money owed to Australian firms was brought up during his talks with his counterpart, Kevin Rudd. "It has been brought to my notice and I would go back to India and take it up with the Ministry of Sports," Krishna told a joint press conference after the meeting.
(Read: Krishna promises help to Oz firms)The Australian companies claim they are owed millions of dollars. Their effort to recover their money is being led by Ric Birch, whose own company, Spectk Productions, is allegedly owed $350,000. Birch's company provided was hired as the main creative consultant for the opening and closing ceremonies.
Howard & Sons, which provided the fireworks for the Opening and Closing ceremony of the Games, claims its owed $300,000 in unpaid bills, but the amount could shoot upto to $900,000 as compensation for the fact that its equipment has still not been returned.
In an open letter that he circulated in the Australian media in November, Birch wrote: "... despite the enormous success of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the Delhi 2010 organizers and agencies have refused to make final payments to any of the international service providers, despite fully executed contracts being entered into by the organizing committee. Even worse, the government Customs department is totally unable or unwilling to re-export all the contractors equipment that was imported to India ... this means that all the lighting instruments, all the audio equipment, the aerostat logistics and support equipment and the pyrotechnic control equipment is simply sitting in containers in Delhi because of the incompetence of government officials and Organizing Committee personnel."
(Read: Ric Birch's open letter slamming CWG organisers) Birch goes on to say that he did not experience similar troubles while working on the Commonwealth Games or the Olympics in Mexico, China, Barcelona or Los Angeles.
"It is extraordinary, because India claims to be a growing economy that is interested in exporting to the world - but the inability of Indian government agencies to handle a straightforward import/export transaction makes it doubtful whether any international company can rely upon India's ability to conduct business in a proper manner," he said in his note.