New Delhi: A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India reveals that the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee paid former Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor $30,000, roughly 13.5 lakh rupees, for 12 days of consultancy work. The Organising Committee had hired Tharoor for his international exposure to help ensure successful staging of the Games. The amount was paid in his foreign bank account.
Defending his CWG connection, Tharoor says he was legally paid for his consultancy work before he joined the government.
In a statement released, the former minister states, "My association with the CWG as a consultant relates to a different phase of my life, when I was a private citizen with NO relationship to the Government, an independent consultant working out of New York, quite legally supporting the CWG for which I was officially, formally and legally paid. The consultancy services were rendered between September 2008 and January 2009. In other words the services relate to a period well before I entered public life."
Here's the full statement by Tharoor:
My attention has been drawn to malicious reports about my having received a payment from the Organizing Committee of the Commonwealth Games in my foreign bank account.The facts are these. My association with the CWG as a consultant relates to a different phase of my life, when I was a private citizen with NO relationship to the Government, an independent consultant working out of New York, quite legally supporting the CWG for which I was officially, formally and legally paid. The consultancy services were rendered between September 2008 and January 2009. In other words the services relate to a period well before I entered public life.
Following my move to India and my entry into public life here, I closed my old office and discontinued any and all remunerative activities related to Government institutions.
I legally retain my foreign bank accounts as all former NRIs are entitled to do under RBI rules, and there is no impropriety in doing so.
In the meantime I would be grateful if those interested would please note:
(1) that I did not approach the CWG but they sought me out in order to have me lend my stature to the promotion of the event;(2) that I was a consultant for international and national engagement and promotion of the Commonwealth Youth Games, not the CWG itself;
(3) that I donated a considerable portion of my time and effort, including on occasion using my personal travel, for this purpose;
(4) that I attended preparatory meetings and the CWYG itself and addressed various
in Pune on the eve of the CWYG; and finally, (5) that the consultancy fee charged was a token sum, and the total sum paid (US$30,000 less taxes) was far below the fee that I used to command even just to make a single speech. In other words, there is nothing illegal, unethical, immoral or improper about my having rendered paid services to a nationally-supported international endeavour.
