Delhi Delays Prompt Class-Action Lawsuit, 10-Day Ultimatum

(ATR) An Australian law firm is suing Delhi 201 organizers to recover unpaid bills on behalf of the man behind its widely hailed closing ceremony.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported Thursday that events expert Ric Birch asked Melbourne-based Slater & Gordon to launch a multi-million-dollar class-action suit representing some of Australia’s biggest production companies, among them his own Spectak Productions.

Across the ocean, meanwhile, India's new sports minister issued an ultimatum Thursday for organizers to wrap up all Games payments.

"I have directed the government nominees in Commonwealth Games organising committee to thoroughly verify the unpaid dues and make all the legitimate payments within ten days. It is a very important issue," Ajay Maken was quoted by Times of India.

Birch told Around the Rings last month he has yet to receive the last of seven payments due from Commonwealth Games organizers, a sum of roughly $350,000. The six he did receive came late, he said, and never without a fight.

"Like pulling teeth," he said of his correspondence with Indian officials. "No one ever responds, which is the biggest problem. It’s like talking into a black hole."

Birch also said the organizing committee withheld 10% of his total for a tax that has yet to be explained.

"We always asked every payment time for a tax certificate. We haven’t received one, so we don’t know where that 10% has gone."

Coupled with the 15% still due from Delhi, "that’s 25% of the contract that they just haven’t paid, and they’ve given no paperwork or said where it’s gone or what they’re doing with it," Birch alleges.

He's not alone in his frustration with Delhi delays.

The Herald reports that sound company Norwest Productions is still due almost $1 million, and fireworks provider Howard & Sons is owed $300,000 in late payments and another $900,000 for unreturned gear still sitting on the subcontinent’s docks.

"The people at the organizing committee responsible for importation seem to have forgotten that it needs to be re-exported," Birch said of the lighting, audio, control and communications equipment used in the October ceremonies.

"India doesn’t seem to cope with the situation that millions of dollars of gear is coming in and going out and not paying duty because it’s not a permanent import, and the Indian bureaucracy and the Indian sports ministry seem totally incapable of resolving the problem."

Australian foreign affairs minister Kevin Rudd took matters into his own hands Thursday during a meeting with his Indian counterpart, after which SM Krishna promised to broach the subject with his countrymen upon return to Delhi this weekend.

Hours later, reports of the 10-day deadline surfaced in Indian media, as did word of the class-action suit.

Despite Krishna's assurance and Maken's ultimatum, Birch is ready for the legal route should the diplomatic one yield no results.

Indian IOC member Randhir Singh told ATR on the sidelines of last month’s 2nd Asian Beach Games in Oman that the wrap-up to the Commonwealth Games is going well but refused to elaborate, insisting the secretary general of the organizing committee, Lalit K. Bhanot, is in charge of tying up any loose ends that remain.

Neither Bhanot, his organizing committee colleagues nor any Commonwealth Games Federation officials could be reached Thursday for comment.

Many had viewed the Commonwealth Games as a stepping stone to the subcontinent’s first Olympic Games.

Delhi 2010 organizing chief Suresh Kalmadi, also IOA president, has for years touted India 2020 after losing the 2014 Asian Games to South Korea.

Indian media reported in early August that the IOA actually decided last year to push for 2020, a bid that seems somewhat less likely in the aftermath of the controversy-ridden CWG.

On the eve of its closing ceremony, Kalmadi appeared to waver for the first time in his insistence on an Olympic follow-up to Delhi 2010.

Kalmadi’s stance then and Singh’s now are the same. The IOA is examining a potential bid, but any decision will be a joint one with the Indian government.

Birch suggested a lack of surprise at the post-Games delays given the chaos that preceded Delhi 2010.

"Indian authorities … said everything was fabulous until the media showed up. Then suddenly the government leapt into action with like six days left and sent a big work squad in. The working conditions were just horrific by Western standards. No matter what we said, the Indians just said ‘It’s just the way we do things," he told ATR.

"If this is the way they treat people for the Commonwealth Games, who knows what they’ll do for the Olympics?"

Written by Matthew Grayson.