Arvind blames it on KTR, goes all out to help a private entity

Hyderabad: Controversial senior bureaucrat Arvind Kumar has sought to put the onus on his previous boss and former municipal administration and urban development minister K.T. Rama Rao for the state government entering into the allegedly dubious agreement with the Formula E race body that has caused a loss of Rs 55 crore to the exchequer.

The loss could have been Rs 150 crore more had the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) hosted the race this February.

What is curious is that a note circulated by Arvind Kumar earlier, a copy of which is available with Deccan Chronicle, revealed that it was not the alternative energy major Greenko, owned by a Singapore state fund, that hosted last year's race but a private entity owned by Greenko chief executive officer (CEO) Chalamalasetti Anil — Ace Nxt Gen Private Limited.

Anil was a regular on Rama Rao's trips abroad including the World Economic Forum at Davos. Arvind Kumar made the HMDA the host and agreed to spend public money of crores of rupees to protect Anil's company from further losses while staging subsequent editions of the race.

Ironically, despite the best efforts by Arvind Kumar to pin the blame on Rama Rao, the bureaucrat’s note itself showed that he could not absolve himself of responsibility for the fraudulent manner in which the agreement was concluded.

"Pending finalisation of the promoters and sponsors, then Minister for MAUD (Rama Rao) had telephonically directed the HMDA to host the event," Arvind Kumar wrote in the note, keeping under wraps the simple rule that as a responsible and prudent administrator he should have circulated the file to the competent authorities and obtained approvals before entering into agreements — that too with foreign agencies and paying them public money.

In another reference, Arvind Kumar said that as per the directions of Rama Rao, it was agreed that for Season 10, the government would be signing the agreement in the capacity of both promoter and host city. "As such, the government agreed to wholly undertake all the financial and event organisation responsibilities which were undertaken by the Promoter as well as the Government in the last season of the event (sic)," Arvind Kumar wrote.

As per his reply, it was evident that Formula E Operations Limited (FEO) had issued a termination notice on October 27, 2023, to Ace Nxt Gen of Anil, apparently relieving it of the financial burden, immediately after the state government agreed to bear the expenses.

Arvind Kumar further revealed that based on the directions of Rama Rao the HMDA had remitted Rs 45 crore plus taxes to FEO with a commitment to pay the remaining Rs 45 crore fee by October 31, 2023.

The former MAUD special chief secretary who held the post of HMDA commissioner and wielded supreme power in the previous BRS regime, also admitted that the government had to scout for sponsors to recover the investment that it had agreed to make. In the event of its failure or partial success in finding sponsors, the HMDA had to bear the brunt.