BCCI Secretary Amitabh Choudhary Questions ACU Chief Ajit Singh’s Appointment, Calls It Invalid

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Saturday that Ajit Singh had been appointed as the Head, Anti-Corruption Unit and the retired Director General of Police (Rajasthan) comes with a wealth of experience in anti-corruption operations, investigative work and field policing. But the BCCI office bearers are bemused that Ajit was appointed without consulting them.

In fact, acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary is surprised that while the Supreme Court had clearly ordered the CoA to supervise all appointments, they went a step ahead and appointed the new ACU chief.

Speaking to CricketNext, a senior BCCI official said that Amitabh is baffled by the turn of events and has written to the CoA and also marked CEO Rahul Johri for going ahead with the appointment which breaks all BCCI rules and regulations.

The letter, a copy of which is with CricketNext, reads: “I must at the very outset express my gratitude for being relieved from the burden of authorizing an appointment which is not supported by law. In this connnection, it is my view that the CEO’s email did not even remotely address the concerns which relate to the process and source of power which had been invoked while taking a decision in the instant matter. It is clear that the power and authority to make appointments for and on behalf of the of the BCCI can only be traced to the extant Rules and Regulations of the Board which are still applicable till the proposed constitution pending consideration before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India is adjudicated.

“Similarly, although there is no reference to the role of the CEO in the extant BCCI Rules and Regulations, the orders dated 2nd January 2017 and 30th January 2017 clearly require us to supervise the management and administration of the BCCI through the CEO, who is to report to us. It follows that we have to sufficiently empower the CEO to enable effective supervision of the management and administration of the BCCI by us. Except to the extent described above, we will respect and follow the extant BCCI Rules and Regulations until such time the new BCCI Rules and Regulations in line with the directions contained in the Judgment are formally adopted.

“Keeping the above in mind, one must also read the relevant provisions of the BCCI Rules and Regulations specially Rule 8(p) which confers the power upon the Board to do the following: To employ, appoint Executive Secretaries, Administrative Officers and Professional Cricketers, Umpires, Scorers, Statisticians, Grounds men, Peons, Servants and other service personal and staff and to pay to them and other persons in return for their services rendered to the Board, salaries, wages, gratuities, pensions, honorariums, compensations, any ex-gratia payment and/or provident fund and to remove or dismiss such employees. As per Rule 7 the “Board” is composed of its office bearers, vice presidents and a representative each from every Member, Associate Member and Affiliate Member.

“In view of the above, there hardly remains any doubt that the selection in the instant matter has been made dehors the provisions of the Rules and Regulations of the BCCI as well the orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India providing for the continuance of the elected office bearers. For reasons unknown to me the elected office bearers have been completely excluded from the entire process.

“Besides, the recruitment policy of the Board ought to consider the requirements of the Board including the following:

• Methodology for receiving request from operations team for hiring new employees

• Clear employee sourcing process

• Detailed background check by an independent, external agency

• Declaration from prospective hirers on relationship with the Board’s stakeholders • Objective interview process and documentation of evaluation by interviewers • Clear policy for fixation of salary / CTC

• Approval matrix for interview evaluation and fixation of CTC

The CEO’s mail hardly touches upon any of the above aspects and in the absence of any other source of information my concerns remained unanswered. Significantly, and curiously, on the other hand the three month extension requested for Prof Shetty, unanimously by all office-bearers in keeping with the law, for very cogent reasons and in consonance with the thoughts expressed in the COA meeting itself dated 12 December 2017 as enumerated in my email dated 28 and 30 March, has been blocked. I am fully aware that the IPL season is starting and I am also aware that, keeping the same in mind, the services of Shri Neeraj Kumar have already been extended till May 31. Yet the haste in issuing the appointment letter in the instant matter without compliance of provisions is completely beyond my understanding. I am afraid this appointment will not be considered valid until approved by the General Body.”

Clearly, the BCCI office-bearers are no longer going to take things lying down. The fact that the CoA and the CEO are looking to run the show without even consulting the office bearers hasn’t gone down well with the officials.