Qaiser Mohammad Ali
The mystery surrounding the DDCA’s balance sheets of 2013-14 and 2014-15 seems to be deepening as two senior DDCA office-bearers have complained to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) that the accounts that were submitted to the BCCI were never duly passed by the association’s executive committee.
DDCA club secretary Sunil Jain and joint-secretary (company affairs) Dinesh Saini further said in their letter that at least both of them had not signed/approved the balance sheets as they haven’t seen them at all.
The DDCA balance sheet has become controversial after its auditor exposed a series of financial irregularities in the 2013-14 internal report. After that now everyone wants to see how much different the final balance sheet is from the internal report.
Dinesh Saini, joint-secretary (company affairs) of the Delhi and District Cricket Association.
It is being said that many of the 27 DDCA directors haven’t signed this balance sheet as they were either were not given to study or didn’t want to sign and “become party to corruption”, as one of them said.
The mystery about the 2013-14 balance is also due differing views on whether or not it has been submitted to the BCCI.
The BCCI has held back DDCA’s share from media rights income etc. due to the non-submission of the balance sheet.
(Also read: Tremors in DDCA: ‘The epicentre is somewhere else’)
Today, the DDCA has virtually no money to pay its 100-odd employees October salary and is begging the BCCI for funds to host the India-South Africa Test match at the Ferozeshah Kotla from December 3.
While alleging that the well laid down procedures of the RoC were not followed by the handful of DDCA office-bearers now controlling the association, Sunil Jain and Dinesh Saini have requested the registrar to appoint a special auditor to audit the two balance sheets, “otherwise you cannot stop any corruption at any level”.
DDCA club secretary Sunil Jain.
They also informed the RoC they had submitted the “necessary documents” to the Arvind Kejriwal headed Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi government. The Delhi government included those documents in a report on malpractices in the DDCA it published a few days ago. The report also recommended that the BCCI suspend the DDCA due its mal-administration.
In a separate development, Jain, who is known for his integrity and honesty, recently sought internal audit reports of years 2013-14 and 2014-15 from DDCA’s official chartered accountants VK Bajaj & Co. He was told by the chartered accountant firm that it couldn’t give the reports to him while disclosing that it had submitted them with DDCA president SP Bansal, general secretary Anil Khanna and treasurer Ravinder Manchanda, from whom he could obtain a copy.
In its written reply to Jain, VK Bajaj & Co. also informed that the audit observations mentioned in these reports have been “discussed with Bansal and Manchanda” only.
(Also read: Delhi HC tells DDCA to deposit Rs.1 cr with Delhi excise dept & host match)
In his complaint to the RoC, Saini said that he came to know from media reports that DDCA vice-president CK Khanna had submitted the 2013-14 and 2014-15 balance sheets to the BCCI during its AGM on November 9 in Mumbai.
“Please note that that no balance sheets and internal auditor’s reports, compliance reports have ever been presented in any executive committee meeting nor they have been passed. We are not aware that how Mr CK Khanna has prepared these balance sheets for 2013-14 and 2014-15 without circulating to the executive committee members in any executive committee meeting. The last executive committee meeting was held on September 4, 2015,” Saini wrote to the RoC.
“Not only to Sunil Jain and me, but these people — Bansal, CK Khanna and Manchanda – haven’t given the balance sheets to any other executive committee member as well,” Saini told www.jantakareporter.com, referring to the 27-member body.
“When we write to these three people seeking information they neither reply nor give the reports sought. Both Sunil Jain and I have written letters to them as well as the RoC for the same reason, but to no avail,” he said. “If they [Bansal, CK Khanna and Manchanda] claim transparency in their functioning then why they are not giving internal audit reports to DDCA directors.”
(Also read: EXCLUSIVE – Top secret DDCA bid to strike ‘compromise’ between ‘corrupt’ directors)
Saini said that the DDCA was anyway late in submitting its financial statement of accounts and the balance sheet with the RoC. “As per Section 137 of Companies Act 2013, the financial statement and balance sheet should also be submitted to the RoC. According to this rule, companies should file these documents by October 30 every year,” he said.
“Sir, as per Section 179 of Company Act 2013, resolutions need to be passed in board meetings only in case of approval of financials and board reports. Further, as per secretarial Standard 1 (SS1.3.8) there is a list of some items of business (including approval of financials and the board report) which shall not be passed by circulation and shall be played before a board meeting which never took place since 4/9/2015 and minutes of the same are awaited,” Saini wrote.
He said this referring to a new DDCA trend of passing resolutions through circulation, without convening meetings of the executive committee.
“None of the finance committee meetings’ minutes or legal committee minutes have been provided,” Saini wrote in his letter. “Under the circumstances, these balance sheets do not carry any authenticity without directors’ reports, internal auditors’ report, finance committee meeting minutes, and minutes of executive committee for the year 2013-14 and 2014-15.”
Highlighting more “misdeeds” of the DDCA, Saini requested the registrar to appoint a special government auditor and “bring all the officers in default on record and initiate appropriate action against them under Section 447 of Company Act 2013”.
Saini and Jain had written to the RoC on November 16, but haven’t received a reply as yet.
He is not surprised, though. “RoC works as a clerk, not as an institution. I have written more than 100 complaints and over 50 letters to the RoC in the last three years, after becoming DDCA joint-secretary (company affairs) in 2012, but and they have not replied a single one,” said a peeved Saini.