ISLAMABAD: Massive irregularities and corruption has been unveiled in Pakistan Super League first two editions, reveals special audit report
The special audit report of first two editions of Pakistan Super League (PSL) has revealed massive irregularities in the T20 League as the national exchequer has to face hundreds of millions of dollars loss due to sale proceeds of commercial rights to franchises on cheaper rates.
The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) conducted a special audit report for the first two editions of PSL. The report hasrevealed that the market value of the PSL was up to $300 million in 2017 but the PCB management sold the commercial rights to the initial franchises in just $93 million in 2015.
As per the special audit report, the cricket board awarded $14.08 million contract to the same company which was already working with PCB. According to PCB record given to audit authorities, the PSL contracts were not widely advertised in international press and media.
Advertisement in international media was not available with the PCB management. Rather conspicuously, PCB’s earlier partner got the PSL contract as well. It was found that only an Indian firm/consortium was handling all major PSL contracts. The parent company name was M/s Technology Frontier established in Madras, India.
Similarly, the audit report further reveals that PCB awarded irregular and non-transparent award to the tune of $57 million to the franchises that were not even qualified for the franchise rights.
According to the report, bids were required to be received at designated email address but bids against firms namely M/s JW International, ARY Digital and Qatar Lubricants were received in hard form only. It was mandatory for a competing firm to produce financial statement of previous two years (with at least one year account being audited) in order to qualify for the selection process.