Team Herald
PANJIM: The Sancoale Village Panchayat has approached the Directorate of Panchayats, seeking an approval for Rs 79,500 already paid to Adv Zeller C De Sousa as legal fees.
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The Directorate of Panchayats has reportedly received a letter from the Mormugao BDO through the Sancoale panchayat, regarding the ex-post facto approval for the 10 bills dated May 22, 2023 dealing with study of matters, drafting and attending the hearings and all are dated.
Adv Zeller C De Sousa’s professional involvement with the Sancoale panchayat has been under audit scrutiny after reports of the panchayat paying almost Rs 10 lakh as legal fees to Adv De Sousa to appear in five matters in 2023-24 with no financial approvals or an agreement of engagement, either on a retainership or a case-to-case basis.
The Directorate of Accounts that conducted an audit of the Sancoale panchayat for the financial year 2023-24 had observed a total fees of Rs 9,55,550 in five matters. The auditors also observed that the village panchayat had not agreed with the advocate on the fees to be paid while it had not obtained any financial approval for fees to be paid. O Heraldo had carried a report on November 18, 2024.
Speaking on ex-post facto approval for the bills sent to the Directorate of Panchayats, Sancoale Panch member Tulshidas Naik said, “The panchayat had exceeded budget head on advocate fees. Till date, the Directorate of Panchayats has not given ex-post facto approval to the fees paid to the lawyer. What is important is that the panchayat has not received quotations and rates from advocate
De Souza.”
Eight bills pertain to matters where Adv De Sousa represented the panchayat before the Additional Director of Panchayats, Margao, and two are revision applications drafted by him. The panchayat had first forwarded these bills to the Mormugao BDO for administrative approval and expenditure sanction in October 2024.
