Kirti Azad hails forensic audit of DDCA accounts

Edited excerpts of the letter written by former Indian cricketer Kirti Azad, who represents BJP in the Lok Sabha from Darbanga, to the Delhi High Court-appointed Administrator of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA):

I am extremely happy to learn about the new advertisement that has been issued by the DDCA to invite proposals from qualified auditors who shall be tasked to do a detailed audit, including forensic examination of DDCA's accounts over the last several years.

I had demanded a thorough probe soon after it was clear that massive fraud and loot was taking place in the DDCA, while young cricketers were being made to pay money to even play for clubs/state.

Instead of answering my queries, the DDCA went on supporting all nefarious activities, secure in the knowledge that the auditor would continue to window dress accounts and would not allow any proof of wrongdoing to come out.

• Despite several members specifically raising the red flag against retention of the auditors (XXX), the DDCA President and then treasurer made sure that it was retained. In fact, the same auditors were continued in different names every few years. There is a case in Tis Hazari Court [215(3)] which has been filed against (XXX) for mismanaging the audit of DDCA accounts, which was brought out in SFIO's report of March 2013. There is no news of this case, which I understand is being given a burial by non pursuance.
• The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has found the said auditor guilty of professional misconduct and has been in the process of taking severe action against him for window dressing DDCA's accounts. Despite my regular follow up, no real action has been taken against him so far.
• The CBI and Delhi Police have been sitting tight over the massive proof that I have supplied to them about the irregularities and fraud that took place regularly in the DDCA – several office bearers who signed on the balance sheets, despite being fully aware of the loot of DDCA money, should be held equally responsible for passing these sham accounts year after year.
• Even today, (XXX) who are writing account books for the DDCA were brought in by a previous treasurer, and they operate out of the DDCA. The previous balance sheets were prepared outside the DDCA and were signed by Directors outside the city limits of Delhi, by a person who had no business to involve himself with DDCA's affairs after demitting office.
• I have submitted proof of fake companies, fake work, fake bills/invoice etc to the CBI, Delhi Police, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, ROC, Regional Director (North) etc – not surprisingly, no one is interested in proceeding forward since very powerful people are involved. In fact, CBI investigators were rebuffed by some of these crooks who even refused to answer basic questions about the fake companies and sham work that was seemingly done by them.
• No one quite knows who has filed the last three years' balance sheets on the ROC website when no AGM has been held. It is obvious that this has been done to circumvent an independent and credible audit under your charge.
• Not surprisingly, practically every office bearer of DDCA has filed a declaration on ROC's website that they were merely Non Executive office bearers and had nothing to do with the day to day running of DDCA's administration. AS 18 and 22, filed along with the balance sheet for 2011-12, clearly mentioned that there were 8 Key Management Personnel in DDCA, each of whom had also signed the balance sheet.
• There have been companies which have been promoted by DDCA employees/office bearers. Two companies, (YYY) and (ZZZ) have suddenly disappeared from existence. They were seemingly promoted by a DDCA employee in the name of his sister and her husband. These two companies were together paid ₹12 crore. I had got an investigative journalist to check about the veracity of all such companies and individuals and even did a Press Conference on 20th December 2015 showing the findings. Not surprisingly, most of the companies did not even exist and were yet paid large sums for doing no work. In fact, hundreds of labourers/officers were shown to have worked in IPL matches , when no passes were made for their entry. Similarly large sums were paid in the name of hiring 15 Chartered Accountants, Lawyers, Guys to vet bills, auditors, architects etc. Loot was done systematically, with both groups sharing the spoils. The fight was only cosmetic and was resolved finally, based on the number of proxies that individual groups commanded, from time to time. There were no permanent friends or enemies in the DDCA – all made merry, with gnawing of teeth and flexing of muscles, from time to time, to extract more money from the DDCA.
• (WWW), a company owned by (VVV), was a recipient of ₹1.55 crore which was round tripped via companies which were shown to be vendors for the DDCA. On my persistent complaints with ROC and Delhi Police, some office bearers, led by Chetan Chauhan and Ravinder Manchanda, complained to Delhi Police but subsequently, some of their colleagues made peace with (WWW) and agreed to show that this money was actually an investment to earn interest. Constant changing of loyalties amidst threat has been fairly common, with the master tactician, (ZZZ) hopping from one group to another with his flock, ensuring that he and his men continued to be relevant in the DDCA all the time.
• Several employees were known to swindle money from DDCA's accounts. In fact, the key Accounts guy had three accounts in Bank of Maharashtra where DDCA had its account. Money was freely transferred from the DDCA to these accounts and this money was used to give loans to DDCA's employees on interest privately.
• (QQQ) who was caught stealing a TV may have been a small thief. The bigger ones, ie the office bearers were regularly looting DDCA’s money in collusion with DDCA's accounts department. All work relating to the DDCA was done at (WWW’s) residence and office for which regular to-and-fro conveyance expenses were paid to DDCA employees.
• Hundred and twelve employees apart from contractual employees were hired when there was no work for them. Any office bearer could give employment to a person of his choice, at a salary that he could decide. Nearly 80% of these employees were recruited in Class IV category and were used to spy against each other. In fact, except for 2-3 employees, none can even read a letter, what to talk of being useful to the DDCA, whose monthly salary bill is upwards of ₹30 lakh.
• To cap it all, the elections were a massive fraud, which even had (ZZZ) manipulating the 'returned' proxies. The very fact that (ZZZ) could stay in power for 35 years without doing any work to sustain himself, tells a tale about the DDCA where several freeloaders enjoyed life to the hilt. By misusing the due process of law, detractors were kept embroiled in court cases, much the same way that I and my colleagues were trapped by third parties, whose lawyers were paid by the DDCA.

I shall be only too happy to appear in front of the appointed auditors and will lead evidence of massive loot and malfeasance in the DDCA. In fact, the Minutes Book which is hidden by (WWW) contains details of how meetings of Executive Committee were manipulated to give contracts to vendors, having links to various office bearers and how those vendors failed to discharge the given duties in toto.

Since I was able to collect documents through RTIs, I have authentic documents to prove the mismanagement and loot that was going on in the DDCA over an extended period of time under the patronage of DDCA's top brass. In fact, all the eight Key Management Personnel should be held accountable and should be prosecuted for being involved in various corrupt practices.

I had kept all these senior office bearers posted about the proof that was available about all wrongdoings, rather than plugging the leaks/loot. Cases were foisted on me and my colleagues through proxy litigants. The case for criminal defamation against me in Tis Hazari Court is one such case which was filed only to ensure that I could be silenced. Now, Chetan Chauhan, who has nothing to do with the DDCA, wants to pursue this case since he knows that there is no merit in the case and he himself was writing to DDCA President about the biased selections in the DDCA for a long time – yet he has to pursue this case since he has to keep me trapped for as long as he can.

We know that you have a very difficult job ahead. Already, these ex-office bearers are trying to get the Delhi High Court judgement of appointing an Administrator overturned, by filing an SLP in the Hon Supreme Court. In these circumstances, the forensic audit is extremely critical and will help in delaying and exposing all the fraud that was done by these crooks.

The letter has been edited and names of people mentioned in the letter dropped.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are author’s own.