FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
Team Herald
MARGAO: During his eventful seven-day tenure at the Margao Municipal Council, outgoing Chairperson Ghanashyam Shirodkar has exposed serious financial discrepancies pertaining to Bapu Environmental Services, which he alleged is a ghost agency engaged in the door-to-door garbage collection in the commercial city and its suburbs.
In a page-long set of remarks in the file related to the payments to the agency, he alleged that a few MMC councillors were involved in the alleged scam, which goes into crores of rupees.
“Bapu Environmental Services is a ghost agency. Few of the MMC councillors are personally involved in garbage collection, in the name of the said agency. After going through the files, I was shocked to find that payments have been made to the agency without even doing any work,” Shirodkar told Herald.
He explained that in the two wards of Margao, workers employed by the civic body are seen engaged in the garbage collection work, but payments for those wards have been made to Bapu Environmental Services. The council has in the past admitted to giving extensions to the said agency without a proper tendering process. Even former Chairperson Savio Coutinho had questioned the award of the garbage collection contract to the agency without following any formalities.
"I also noticed that all the matters pertaining to this file have been handled at the Chief Officers level; in reality, the Chief Officer has no right to decide on the financial aspects of the same,” he said.
