SATURDAY, MAY 18, 2024
PRATIK PARAB
MARGAO: The South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) has been drained of its entire funds by means of outsourcing various works. The fuel bills of the Chairman, vehicles of PDA and the taxi hired, run in lakhs.
As the SGPDA is on a spending spree, the Authority has no money left to pay their retired employees and has been doing that from the salary grants.
Information obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) documents, revealed that the SGPDA has paid over Rs 8.13 lakh, for cleaning of the retail market from November 2019 till the month of February 2020.
The retail market, which was famed and compared to that of the markets in Dubai, lies in an utter pitiful state today even as the SGPDA has paid up over Rs 10 lakh rupees by now. This work is allotted to Milagres Fernandes. Milagres collects money from the vendors too. But a senior SGPDA official says hardly any amount form this collection comes back to the SGPDA.
The collection peaks up to at least Rs 2.5 lakhs. However, with all this payment the market lies in utter shambles. With floor tiles broken, taps leaking, water on walkways…. the list is unending.
Milagres Fernandes also runs the agency for security to the SGPDA retail market and it’s called “Wild Security Agency”. Yes, the cleaning and the security contract are with the same person!
Wild Security Agency, on record, has four security persons and a supervisor for which the agency draws Rs 75 thousand in payments every month. When Herald contacted fishermen at the PDA Market they said, "Security Guard? We have not seen one here for a long time,” while adding that a person comes and opens the market in the morning and then locks the gate in the evening.”
In all this blue-eyed boy of the SGPDA (who, incidentally started getting these contracts almost immediately after the new Chairman Wilfred D’ Sa, aka Babashan took charge), draws Rs 4.60 lakh to Rs 4.90 lakh monthly, which is an extremely profitable business for a cleaning and security agency to make.
All we are asking is; where is the money going? Is the market clean and does the market have security guards. If the SGPDA is paying people’s money, why is it not holding the contractor accountable?
Herald met the President of the SGPDA Vendors Federation, Felix Gonsalves, and inquired regarding the security and cleaning services. He said, "We haven't seen a full-time security guard. A person comes and locks the market at night and opens it in the morning."
While speaking on cleaning and maintenance Gonsalves said that the cleaning is not up to the mark. A person puts water in the walkways and removes it. A worker brooms the outer areas of the market. “The maintenance is not satisfactory,” he added.
For work that big the SGPDA was expected to float a tender and give it through competitive bidding. But, there is no tender on record to say that the authority even attempted.
The story continues with the expenses for fuel. The Chairman's vehicle used a total of Rs 1,00,450 from October 2019 to May 2020.
Almost a lakh of fuel bills paid with no logbook entries
There are two other vehicles of the SGPDA - a white ‘Ertiga’, which has been rarely used; and another one bearing number GA-08-A-5113. Documents that have been acquired through RTI revealed that in the year 2019 a payment of Rs 97,100 was made towards the fuel for these vehicles. However, there is no sign of the logbook or any mention of how many kilometres these vehicles were driven for.
So much spending, paltry earnings
After all this the SGPDA is said to be earning little over Rs 1.50 lakh from the wholesale fish market and the rest coming from development permissions and land fees.
The SGDPA has a lot to answer on why their coffers have drained to such an extent that now they don't even have money to settle a head clerk who retired recently. The SGPDA incidentally isn't contributing to the pension fund as well.
The rot is really within. And like the market, nobody seems to be in pressing hurry to clean it.
Taxi hired for 46K per month since 2018 because SGPDA didn’t have driver for own vehicles
Now here’s a very curious case. Fuel bills have been raised and paid for SGPDA cars without logbooks. But who drove the cars since SGPDA didn’t have a driver?
Moreover since 2018, SGPDA has been hiring a vehicle at a payment of average Rs 46,400 since 2018. RTI information, in Herald’s possession, shows that from November 2019 to February 2020 alone SGPDA has paid Rs 1.84 lakh the taxi hire. SGPDA could have hired two drivers to drive its cars at this cost.
This too has happened during the Chairmanship of Dr Renuka Da Silva and Ashok Kumar as the Member Secretary. The vehicle was hired for the Member Secretary as there was no driver for the existing vehicles.
