Oz Trade Minister to raise 2010 Delhi CWG payment issue during India visit

MELBOURNE - Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson has said he will use his visit to India to lobby on behalf of Australian companies which claim that they were not paid for their work at last year’s Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Emerson will arrive in Mumbai on Monday to hold talks with his Indian counterpart, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma.

He said that the three-day trip would give the two Ministers a chance to discuss bilateral trade and economic issues ahead of Sharma’s visit to Australia later this year for annual Joint Ministerial Commission trade talks, the Age reported.

Emerson will also “make further representations” about the 2010 Commonwealth Games payment scandal.

Earlier, several Australian sporting bodies and event groups had claimed that they owed millions of dollars by the Delhi Commonwealth Games organizers.

Australian Commonwealth Games Association (ACGA) Chief Executive Perry Crosswhite had said his body was one of “30 or 40″ similar Games bodies around the world owed money by Delhi organizers.

“We’re owed a travel subsidy payment in the six figures that was due in November,” Crosswhite had said.

Howard and Sons boss Andrew Howard had said that the combination of the unpaid money and the hold-up of the company’s unique pyrotechnics firing equipment in Delhi had left the firm facing a financial crisis.

“The past three months have probably been the most challenging in our 89-year history, in terms of both cash flow and equipment,” Howard had said.

According to reports, Howard and Sons said that it was owed 300,000 dollars in unpaid bills, but up to 900,000 dollars once compensation for not having crucial equipment available was taken into account. (ANI)