MUMBAI: Almost a year after its submission, the Board of Control of India (BCCI) has asked all member associations to submit a response to an internal financial report submitted by auditing firm Deloitte.
Following the CoA’s instructions, the BCCI chief executive Rahul Johri has written to them to respond “within ten days”. The Hindu understands that the BCCI has also shared Deloitte’s observations about the respective member bodies.
As a part of BCCI’s Project Transformation, Deloitte, along with PricewaterhouseCoopers, was hired for bringing in greater accountability and transparency by the previous BCCI dispensation in October 2015.
While the axed BCCI president Anurag Thakur continued to highlight the appointment of Deloitte as a significant step towards improving BCCI’s administration, the Deloitte report had not been acted upon ever since it was submitted last year.
The report is understood to have made startling revelations about most of the BCCI members. It has detailed financial misappropriations, besides highlighting the use of the grant received by BCCI for personal gains of officials in multiple state associations.
The state associations appear to be unsure about their next step. While some associations are planning to discuss the report in detail in a managing committee, some are already clear about “ten days being too short for submitting a reply”.
Abhay Apte, the Maharashtra Cricket Association president, said he is in no position to comment about the BCCI communication. “The Committee (of Administrators) has instructed us to keep this matter confidential, so there is no question of me commenting about it,” he said from Pune.
A former BCCI office-bearer, however, said the Deloitte report cannot be made binding on the state associations. “Let’s not even get into whether all the protocols for an audit report like an exit meeting have been filed or not. First and foremost, the report was meant only for internal purpose and it cannot be thrust upon any member,” he said, citing anonymity.