Delhi Games and vendors step up dispute over payment

Organisers of last year's Delhi Commonwealth Games have withheld payment to nine foreign companies for "non-performance" but one of them said on Tuesday it would sue over non-payment. Organisers said 45 foreign vendors were contracted for the controversy-ridden October Games and 36 of them had been paid nearly 1.15 billion rupees ($25 million) by January 31.
Part payments to nine foreign vendors have been withheld because of "non-performance of the contracts", Jarnail Singh, who heads the organising committee, said in a statement. Those nine vendors have been paid 1.9 billion rupees but have had the remaining 178 million rupees withheld from them, he said.
The Games were widely criticised by media and fans for the poor state of facilities and accommodation, particularly in the days leading up to its opening. Singh, who heads the organising committee following the sacking of president Suresh Kalmadi and secretary general Lalit Bhanot last month over alleged financial irregularities, was not available to elaborate on the non-performance of contracts.
Ric Birch, whose Spectek Production organised the opening and closing ceremonies and were one of the nine unpaid companies named, told Reuters he had taken legal action against the Games organisers. "They have not paid and they are saying now that that they are not paying at all," said Birch. "The organisers are saying we are non-performers and that is the end of it. There is, of course, no evidence put forward as to what we have not performed. It is just another excuse not to pay."
Singh said 64 Commonwealth Games Associations had been fully paid their travel grant while seven others would receive their money by February 7. The row is an embarrassment to India which had hoped to portray itself at the Games and the forthcoming Cricket World Cup (February 19-April 2) as a modern, fast developing nation quite capable of efficiently staging global sports events.
In another setback to that image, last week the governing body of cricket, the International Cricket Council, ruled that the Kolkata Eden Gardens ground was not ready for the much anticipated World Cup match between India and England and would be replaced by a stadium in Bangalore.