An Australian who provided services to the New Delhi Commonwealth Games last year is worried he will never be paid following the arrest of the event's chief organiser.

Authorities say Suresh Kalmadi will be charged with several conspiracy counts relating to the awarding of commercial contracts for last year's games.

They allege Mr Kalmadi conspired to award a contract to a Swiss firm and manipulated tenders and knowingly inflated costs.

Howard and Sons Pyrotechnics director Andrew Howard says his Australian company is still owed $150,000 for supplying fireworks for the closing ceremony.

"Now there's nobody left to deal with the contractual obligations of the organising committee," he said.

"They have all been locked up, put in jail, swept aside, but no-one has been replaced to deal with the situation at hand for people who are still owed money."

The New Delhi Games were the biggest sporting event India had hosted in 30 years, but for many Indians the Games became a national embarrassment.

There were complaints of cost over-runs, with the Games budget tripling to $6 billion.

It has been estimated one-third of that budget was misappropriated.

Mr Kalmadi has continually protested his innocence, but as the public face of the Games, he was booed at the opening and closing ceremonies.

Mr Howard says he believes Mr Kalmadi's arrest comes one year too late.

"He was the chairman of a committee that throughout my entire dealings with them was totally inept," he said.

"When dealing with the Commonwealth Games, one thinks that you're dealing with a professional outfit and they certainly didn't represent that."

Mr Howard says he doubts he will ever be paid.

"I've been back to Delhi twice after the Games trying to deal with this situation of getting my goods returned, trying to get payment, and ever since that time the police authorities have been raiding their offices," he said.

"This has been going on for a considerable period of time and the only way for it to really change is if all these [people] were cleaned up before the Games.

"Obviously all this was going on before the Games and it should have been cleaned up."

Australia's Commonwealth Games chief Perry Crosswhite says the experience will hurt India's international reputation and make it harder for the country to stage big sporting events in the future.