Upscale Delhi cultural centre IIC has taken no action on report that revealed that even president’s signature was being ‘forged’ to allot coveted membership.
New Delhi: The India International Centre (IIC), an upscale cultural centre in the Capital, has for the past 15 months been sitting on an audit report that has revealed glaring irregularities with regard to the grant of membership between 2014 and 2017.
The report, prepared by the auditing firm Chandiok & Guliani, was submitted to the IIC in September 2017.
It has flagged several violations such as the regular and short-term associate membership (STAM) having allegedly been allotted to individuals without proper approval, the signature of the then IIC president being forged, names being allegedly added to the membership list after the approval of the president, and the ceiling limit for membership being violated to accommodate well-connected individuals among others.
According to a list that the auditors submitted to the IIC, those who were allotted regular and associate membership during this period included BJP media panellist Aman Sinha, Gaurav Joshi, son of one of the board of trustees L.K. Joshi, former land and development officer (L&DO) Mehmood Ahmed and businessman Thurwinder Singh Oberoi among others.
Sinha, however, told ThePrint that the report was incorrect. “I got membership to IIC much before 2015,” he said.
Eminent jurist Soli Sorabjee was the IIC president during this period (1 October 2014, to 30 April 2017). He had stepped down from his post on June 2017 and was succeeded by former Jammu and Kashmir governor N.N. Vohra. Both are life trustees of the IIC.
Vohra did not respond to phone calls or queries mailed to him on the issue. This report will be updated when he responds.
Sorabjee insisted that action had been taken on the report.
“The IIC board has gone into the report and taken corrective action wherever needed,” he told ThePrint. “In cases where there were minor irregularities or technical flaws, the membership was not renewed.”
The IIC, set up in 1958, has a three-tier membership. While regular members can participate in general body meetings and have voting rights, associate members do not have either voting rights or the right to attend the general body meetings. They can only enjoy the facilities.
STAM is a temporary membership given for a period of three years; those who hold it can utilise the facilities but do not have any of the other rights.
Membership to the club is seen as a status symbol and as such, there is a long waiting list. It is generally opened once in 10 years. The last time the membership was opened was in 2014.
What the auditors found
The special audit ordered by the IIC’s administrative unit found that membership, allotted between October 2014 and April 2017, included a list of 54 names that were allegedly recommended by life trustees of the club and do not contain any signature of the approving/sanctioning authorities.
“In other words, 54 members were allotted membership without proper approvals,” the report noted.
The report further said that there had been a violation of rules laid down by the board of trustees in relation to the ceiling placed on the maximum number of STAM member at any given point of time.
While the board at its 226th meeting placed a ceiling on induction of members under STAM at 450, the total number of members as on 1 June, 2017, was 473.
The IIC has a 10-member board of trustees, which includes five life trustees, two elected trustees and three IIC officials — the secretary, a director and a treasurer to assist the board. There is also an eight-member executive committee, which together forms the sanctioning authority.
Besides Vohra and Sorabjee, the other three life trustees are former foreign secretary Shyam Saran, retired Supreme Court judge, Justice B.N. Srikrishna, and art historian Kapila Vatsyayan.
Vatsyayan, Saran and Srikrishna refused to comment for the report.
‘Signature of club president forged’
While going through a list dated 16 January 2017, containing names of 20 individuals for STAM membership, the auditors observed that the president’s signature was allegedly forged at two places.
“In our opinion, there appears to be a mismatch between the signatures of the President,” the audit report states. “Accordingly, the possibility of duplicating signature of the President, in the instant case, cannot be ruled out.”
In another instance, the auditors found that a list containing 28 names, all of which were handwritten, had some names that figured twice in the list.
“Further, approval was taken from the President twice as his signature was appearing on two different places with different dates,” the audit report observed. “It appears that certain names were added later to the list and approval was taken thereafter.”
The auditors further noted that this practice of taking approval of the President twice on the same list appears to be “irregular.”
Other irregularities
In one instance, the auditors observed that a letter allegedly forwarded by Vatsyayan, a noted scholar of Indian classical dance and art, recommended allotment of STAM membership to 10 individuals, firms, companies.
“… It appears that 10 names were added (handwritten) after taking approval of the President by giving the impression that 20 names were suggested by Dr Vatsyayan,” the audit report alleges. “Again, the signature of the secretary and the president was at the top of the page whereas it should have been at the end of the sheet.”
Vatsyayan told ThePrint that he wouldn’t be able to comment. “Since I am a member of the trust, it won’t be proper on my part to comment on the issue,” he said.
Asked what action the IIC had taken on the audit report, Kanwal Wali, secretary, IIC, told ThePrint, “I just joined a month back and don’t have complete details of the case. But I am sure that in a prestigious organisation like the IIC due process would have been followed.”
Wali sought a week to respond to ThePrint’s queries. “Our annual day is on 22 January and we are busy with its preparations right now,” he added.
This report will be updated once Wali responds to ThePrint’s queries.