DDCA officials refuse to sign off on enormous marquee stand, lawyers bills

As per the officials, the marquee stands for the India-Bangladesh T20I in November cost nearly three times (Rs 90 lakh) the actual proposed cost. Meanwhile, the DDCA were also issued a bill of Rs 1 crore to the lawyers who represented the state association in November. These two amounts had raised a few eyebrows in the DDCA's Apex Council and were also the reason behind an ugly public brawl during the AGM in December last year. 

According to a report in the Indian Express, Manchanda, who is one of the authorised signatories, has refused to clear payments to the vendor, thus, letting the deadlock go on. 

“I will not sign on the cheque nor will I clear the bills when it comes to the marquee stands. The cost of services at the marquee stand as per the bills submitted to the DDCA is much more than when the tender was issued. These bills need to be scrutinised to see why the amount has increased. The amounts need to add up compared to the facilities provided in the marquee stands,” Manchanda said, reported CricketNext.

“The first issue is that the bills seem inflated and on top of that, there are no details on how much the DDCA made from ticket sales at the marquee stands. Were the expenses justified if the state association didn’t generate enough income?” he said.

Another Apex Council member also raised objections to the bills submitted by the lawyers, noting that the yearly expense had only come to around Rs 3 crore.

“For the financial year 2018-19, the total legal expenses were about Rs 3 crore. So how is the legal expenses for November so high? It needs to be checked if the fees some of these lawyers are charging are justified and whether these bills are genuine,” an Apex Council member said.

Meanwhile, the treasurer Sharma, who had raised this issue at the AGM when the balance sheets were presented, revealed that he had been left in the dark regarding all this.

“I raised a dissent note with regard to the balance sheet of the DDCA. Though I am the treasurer of the DDCA, I have not been shown the accounts or the balance sheet. I have been kept in the dark,” Sharma had said.