BCCI vs Lodha panel: Board may face fresh trouble due to Deloitte audit reports

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) may encounter fresh trouble after facing the prospect of the Justice Lodha Committee asking for Deloitte’s audit reports on the functioning of the its state associations, which are said to be damning. According to a report on  India Today, the audit reports by the US-based professional services organisation are said to reveal misuse of funds by state associations and could bolster the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha panel’s offense against the Indian board. For now, the reports are in the custody of Amarchand Mangaldas, BCCI’s legal advisors. “If they get these and place them before the Supreme Court there is every likelihood of a new investigation being launched into the affairs of the BCCI and the state associations. The Deloitte report/s on the functioning of some associations are just damning,” a BCCI source was quoted as saying in the report. [caption id=“attachment_3076652” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational photo. AFP[/caption] The source went on to accuse members of the Goa Cricket Association (GCA) of buying as many as 18 cars for personal needs, with expenses such as fuel getting billed in the association’s name. The Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) was accused of distributing gold coins among its managing committee members and gifting their wives jewellry. The Odisha body was described by the source as one whose accounts were hand-written in the digital age. Another source close to the Indian board was quoted as saying to The Telegraph that the BCCI would lose any sympathy that they were currently enjoying in their lock-down with the apex court. “If that does happen, then we will lose whatever sympathy the institution may currently be enjoying in its tussle with the Supreme Court,” the source was quoted as saying. The report also stated that the Hyderabad association gave an undertaking in a letter to the board, with HCA president and former India off-spinner Arshad Ayub promising to rectify the irregularities. Among the excerpts from the undertaking published in the report, the Hyderabad body assured that it would prepare annual budgets and provide reasoning for the same. It would also introduce the practice of recording all accounting entries and tally on a timely basis in order to ensure completeness of all transactions. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court said the Lodha Committee will appoint an independent auditor to study the BCCI’s finances, including contracts involving media rights and other tenders above a certain threshold value. The auditor would scrutinise and audit the income and expenditure of the the BCCI, oversee the tendering process above a threshold value to be fixed by the committee and the award of the contract subject to the approval of Lodha panel. The panel would be at liberty to obtain the advice of the auditors on the fairness of the tendering process. The committee would be at liberty to formulate the terms of engagement of the auditors having regard to the above directions and the BCCI “shall defray the costs, charges and expenses of the auditors”. With inputs from IANS