Usually, when a
Board is dissolved and eight of its directors disqualified, it’s usually bad
news and the market players are severely affected. However, in Goa, thousands
of Goan dairy farmers rejoiced with the news and harbour strong hopes that this
will herald a new beginning.
To give some perspective, much before the
landmark decision of the Registrar of Cooperative Society (RCS), a corruption
scandal infuriated the farmers.
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An assistant manager/engineer of Goa Dairy V
Dharwadkar was caught red-handed while accepting Rs 40,000 cash as part of a
bribe amount to the tune of Rs 5 lakh from a contractor for awarding a tender,
which was duly sanctioned to him. To the
farmers, the recent action taken by the Anti – Corruption Bureau and more
importantly by the RCS, will go a long way in wiping the much maligned slate
clean and start afresh.
They say, Goa Dairy used to be popular in Goa
for the fresh milk it supplied but lately it was popular only for
corruption. However, with the RCS
disqualifying eight board members and banning them from contesting the BoD
elections for the next six years and conducting an inquiry against the former
Managing Director, the farmers feel their struggle for the last two years has
finally borne fruit.
While they recently staged a fast unto death
dharna, they received plenty of financial setbacks personally given the manner
in which Goa Dairy had functioned; they had been denied their share of the
profits. They were also protesting a series of measures taken by Goa Dairy such
as cutting bonuses, increasing purchase price of milk, selection of vendors for
procuring raw materials and reducing the cattle-feed rates.
The losses incurred by Goa Dairy to the tune
of Rs 5 crore also shocked the farmer who pointed out that it was much higher
than the previous reported loss figures.
The issue was further taken up in their Annual
General Body meeting where they had
demanded that an inquiry committee be set up to find out the reasons behind the
huge losses.
A six-member committee of farmers led by Dattaprasad
Sabordekar and were elected for conducting an inquiry.
However
two days after they began their investigation, Goa Dairy Board stopped this inquiry committee
from conducting any further inquiry stating that as per Cooperative law, such a
committee is invalid. Despite the
setback, the committee did not lose hope and continued their inquiry, while the
rest of the farmers began to agitate against the MD and the management.
The farmers also demanded that the RCS
suspends the MD and dissolve the Board of Directors; conduct an inquiry and
appoint an Administrator to run Goa Dairy.
However, it took the government almost two
years to fulfil their demand. The inquiry committee of the farmers, after
raising their voice through the media, finally filed a complaint with RCS about
the mismanagement by Goa Dairy Management regarding various purchases. The former Chairman Former Chairman Madhav Sahakari
also filed complaint against the MD Navso Sawant on similar grounds.
Finally after these complaints and more, and
also the agitations by the farmers, the RCS appointed a Chartered Accountant to
conduct an inquiry into the affairs of Goa Dairy.
After a month’s time and inspecting Goa Dairy
documents, the CA submitted an inquiry report to RCS revealing mismanagement in
Goa Dairy purchases and recommended that action be taken against those involved
in it.
The RCS based on the inquiry report went on to
suspend seven directors and appoint an Administrator for Goa Dairy. The
Administrator was also directed to suspend MD Navso Sawant pending the inquiry
against him.
However soon after this, the seven members
approached the High Court challenging the RCS decision and argued that their
sides had not been heard and that they had been denied natural justice.
Following this, the HC set aside the RCS disqualification order and permitted
them to continue on Board. The Court in the same order directed the RCS to
conduct inquiry of directors by hearing their side. Accordingly the Seven Directors and MD were back
in the saddle and continued working as part of the Goa Dairy Management.
But their relief was short as the RCS
continued their inquiry against the BoD and MD and disqualified the seven
directors and one co-opted director. Another order was given to conduct an
inquiry against the former MD and for the second time, an Administrator was
appointed.
What followed next was the dissolution of the
Board due to lack of quorum as only four directors were remaining. These four
including chairman Rajesh Faldesai cannot function as the Board lacks majority
and in the end the demands and dreams of the agitating farmers were met.
Farmers want to change how the Board
of Directors are elected
The Goa Dairy Board consists of 12 Directors and is currently elected by
the chairpersons of 176 milk-supplying societies attached to Goa Dairy. They
represent the 16,000 dairy farmers, who elect their respective chairman, who in
turn, are given the right to directly elect the Board of Directors in order to
improve the administration and for transparent management.
However, many farmers are of the opinion that to improve the affairs of
Goa Dairy, at least eight Board of Directors should be elected directly by the
farmers and that the remaining four Directors can be elected by the Chairmen of
the 176 societies.
In this regard, some farmers have submitted a memorandum to the Chief
Minister calling for improving the way Goa Dairy’s management functions. The
Chairman of the Bethora Mill Society, a farmer himself, concurred with this
view and stated that farmers should at least, be given the right to elect 50
per cent of the Board of Directors.
By
the order of Registrar of Cooperative Society
On August 13, 2019, the Registrar of
Cooperative Society (RCS) disqualified, eight board directors of Goa State
Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd, popularly known as Goa Dairy, after
establishing their involvement in massive irregularities. This also included
one co-opted director.
The RCS Menino D’Souza in his order said that
they are disqualified to continue as BoDs of Goa Dairy under section 59(11) of the Goa Cooperative Act as both
inspection reports have found discrepancies in the working of Society, which
are irregular, illegal in nature and detrimental to the interest of Society.
The order further stated that since there is no quorum on Board after
disqualification of the eight directors, the Board is also dissolved and that
they have appointed Deputy Director of the Department of Animal Husbandry &
Veterinary Services, Dr. Vilas Naik, as the Administrator to look after functioning
of the Dairy.
The registrar also stated that the inquiry
will be initiated against the disqualified directors and also former MD Dr.
Navso Sawant for the involvement in mismanagement and irregularities since past
few years who were on Board between 2012 to 2017 shall be responsible for the
loss caused to the purchase of fill pack machines, ice cream plant machinery,
the recruitment of staff and purchase of raw material for the cattle feed
plant. “The loss will be determined and
quantified by filing separate misappropriation
case under section 82 of the Act,” the order further stated.
It came to light inquiry report that Goa Dairy
management purchased the five fill pack machines for milk at higher rates at Rs
14.75 lakhs when the same machines were made available to supply by another
supplier at Rs 9.60 lakh each, which means they had been purchased at higher
prices giving doubt of mismanagement. Various discrepancies were also found in
other reports of their purchases. After
disqualifying the directors, RCS will now have to verify these purchase related
dealings and transactions, so as to take further legal action if they are found
to be guilty.
Interestingly, the RC had in 2018, based on
its then report on the Board’s mismanagement, which had been submitted by the
inquiry officer, had passed the same order disqualifying the seven Directors.
The directors had then challenged the order in the High Court which had set
aside the order and asked the RCS to hear the director’s view and issue a fresh
order within a stipulated period of time. Four months later, the RCS confirmed
its order.
The inquiry officer’s report pointed to the
failure of the Board to constitute a selection committee as per the by-laws for
recruiting employees at Goa Dairy. The report further observed that the
Committee for procurement had arbitrarily decided upon the vendors to supply
raw material for the cattle feed plant without following due procedure. The
officer also questioned the Board for unjust payment in purchasing of milk from
outside state.
Further, with regard to the utilisation of
funds from the National Dairy Development Board, Goa Dairy had not maintained
proper vouchers for the utilising the said fund for the purpose for which it
had been sanctioned.
New
Administrator vows to improve Goa Dairy’s functioning and milk quality
All eyes are now on the new Administrator and
he carries on his shoulder the weight of the aspirations of thousands of
farmers and their hope that he will be able to put their house in order.
Dr Vilas Naik, who has just taken over as the
Administrator of Goa Dairy, said he will focus on maintaining the quality,
reputation and goodwill of Goa Dairy.
Emphasising that his approach would be entire
pro-Goan dairy farmers and customers and ensuring transparency, Dr. Vilas Naik
has vast experience and is the Deputy Director of the Department of Animal
Husbandry & Veterinary Services.
He continued on that note, stating that people
of Goa are looking at Goa Dairy with great hope and reiterated that he will see
that the quality of milk and reputation of Goa Dairy is maintained through his
decisions.
Farmers claim Sumul entry has not affected them
When SUMUL, a pan-India dairy cooperative
society entered Goa two years ago, the move was feared and criticised by
farmers. They had opposed the
government’s decision to allow SUMUL to operate in Goa as they were scared it
would affect the survival of Goa Dairy and ultimately the thousands of Goan
dairy farmers whose livelihood is dependent on their business supplying milk to
the Goan cooperative society.
However, two years later, the farmers claim
that SUMUL has not had any major impact on them with just little over 200
hundred farmers switching to SUMUL. While they admit that the Goa Dairy Sale
lost 4,000 litres because of this move, it was still a small margin as Goa
Dairy has a sale of around 77,000 litres per day in the Goan market. They
further claim that most of the farmers had switched back to Goa Dairy after a
short period of time.
The lifeline of Goa’s dairy farmers
While around 20,000 litres per day is imported
from neighbouring states, 60,000 to 70,000 litres of milk is supplied by Goan
dairy farmers to Goa Dairy, which mechanically process the 77,000 litres of
milk at its plant in Curti Ponda. From here it is then supplied for marketing
through 1,200 authorised outlets all over Goa.
However, even then it Goa Dairy is not able to
fully meet the demand of the Goan consumer, which is estimated to be a volume
of 3 lakh litres of milk needed every day.
The shortfall is met by suppliers by dairy societies located outside Goa
and also SUMUL in Goa.
The Goa Dairy is not able to meet fully the
demand of the Goan consumer which is estimated at around 3 lakh litres of Milk
every day and the shortfall is met by supplies from Dairies from outside and
also SUMUL in Goa.
At Goa Dairy, there are around 300 workers,
including officials who are working at its various plants such as cattle-feed,
milk processing, ice-cream
Around 300 workers, including officials are
working Goa Dairy`s various plant including cattle-feed, milk processing,
ice-cream and other dairy products. They are supposedly earning a good salary
as it is learnt that Goa Dairy Board is implementing the government’s pay scale
for its employees.
The flashpoint that
led to the strike
Last year, in order to bridge the losses suffered by the cattle-feed
plant to the tune of Rs 5 crore, the Goa Dairy Management hiked the prices of cattle-feed
rates by Rs. 2.50 claiming that the plant was running into losses due to the
subsidised rates.
However, the farmers were furious at this decision and went on a hunger
strike demanding that the rates be reduced.
The Board of Directors however refused to accept their demands stating
that they could not afford to provide subsidy on cattle-feed or to lower their
rates. They blamed the fluctuating
prices of raw materials being procured from other states as well as those from
Goa but this argument did not sit well with the protesting farmers.
Stakeholders welcome decision
The farmers who had staged the agitation
against the mismanagement by Goa Dairy’s Board has hailed the RCS decision to
disqualify the eight board directors and say that they and satisfied with the
verdict.
Welcoming the change in tide in favour of
them, the farmers add that they hope the government recovers the money looted
in the recent past. A farmer Jayant
Desai pegged the losses that need to be recovered at Rs 80 lakhs.
“We
congratulate Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who had assured in the assembly that
he will send back the guilty officials in Goa Dairy,” added Jayant.
Farmers were also happy about the fact that
the disqualified directors have been banned from contesting elections for a
period of six years as they feel it will act as a necessary deterrent.
They also hope that this will lead to cleaning
up of any corrupt practices and that the government will put their full
attention to Goa Dairy as it seeks to become profitable again and that the
farmers get a share of the profits too, given all their hard work.
Another farmer Anup Desai
who had recently gone a hunger strike in front of the Goa Dairy premises said
the corruption was akin to cancer, which has now been operated and removed.
“The aim is for the government to move to a path of profit making. The
government needs to keep a vigil so that it doesn’t become another loss making
unit like the Sanjeevani Sugar Factory,” added Anup.
