India’s 10 million dollars inducement to win Commonwealth bid

MELBOURNE - The Delhi Commonwealth Games Organising Committee gave Australia 100,000 dollars in kickbacks after India won the bid to host the event as part of a 10 million dollar inducement exercise.

Delhi sealed the right to host the Games when their delegates emerged at the final presentation in Jamaica and offered all 72 nations 100,000 dollars each for athlete training schemes if they were successful bidders.

The money was significant for small nations who have minimal interest in the Games, and clinched their vote for Delhi as it beat Canadian city Hamilton 46-22 in the final poll to host the event. Hamilton had offered the nations about 70,000 dollars each.

The Commonwealth Games Association has decided to ban 11th-hour inducements as a consequence of the outrage over India’s tactics, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The Gold Coast consortium, which is hoping to host the 2018 Games, has been told it must include all details of its bid in a proposal by May and there will be no late cash offers for votes.

“We agree with that decision because you have to be transparent. It [the payment] didn’t make any difference to our decision but it is not a good thing,” said Australian Commonwealth Games Association president Sam Coffa.

Coffa said the money would have been used for general CGA expenses such as airfares, and added that he has mixed emotions about Delhi’s plight but no regrets about supporting their Games bid, The Daily Telegraph reports.

“We had a situation where Asia has had the Games only once [Malaysia in 1998] and it was worthwhile going again. I still think they can pull it off. If I have any regrets it is that the Commonwealth Games Federation did not act sooner.

“They were behind schedule quite a few months ago and it would have helped if they had gone to India to get things moving,” Coffa added. (ANI)