Team Herald
PANJIM: The Goa government spent a whopping Rs 2.61 crore on the Mega Job Fair held on November 8, 2022, at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, Taleigao plateau.
This has been revealed in the information furnished to activist Adv Aires Rodrigues under the Right to Information Act (RTI) by the Office of Labour and Employment Commissioner. As per the documents, Rs 2.51 crore was paid to M/s Sunlight Media, the event management company while Rs 9.27 lakh was spent on media advertisements besides an expenditure of Rs 75,754 was incurred on vehicles hired from the Kadamba Transport Corporation Limited and Goa Tourism Development Corporation for the event.
The file notings and the timeline of the pre job fair procedure have allegedly revealed that there was no prior financial approval for the event. It is also seen that as per the file notings, the Finance Department had returned the file to the Labour Commissioner citing that the explanation to the queries raised was not satisfactory.
The notings further reveal that despite all those objections raised, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who is also the Finance Minister, on February 14, this year, accorded government’s expenditure sanction for that Mega Job Fair.