That Margao Municipal Council (MMC) has no ready money to pay its staff their salaries should not come as a surprise. The municipal council has consistently mismanaged its finances, and if it is falling short of ready cash then it is not because of lack of financial avenues but because of lack of application on the part of its councilors and the administration.
MMC is now hoping that the government releases the salary grant of Rs 2.5 crore and Octroi installment of Rs 1.65 crore before the end of the month so that it is in a position to pay its staff their salaries for the month. If the government delays in releasing the money, then MMC will be left with no option but to dip into its fixed deposits to pay the salaries, which come to around Rs 1.30 crore a month.
This is not the manner in which a municipal council should operate, especially since this is not the first time this year that MMC has had to dip into its fixed deposits to pay the salaries of its staff. The cash-strapped municipal council did it last month when it ran short of funds to pay its staff the salary for the month of September. Requiring almost Rs 1 crore to pay the salary it prematurely withdrew a fixed deposit of Rs 90 lakh to meet the salary bill. At that time a municipal officer had told Herald that there were arrears of Rs 10 crore but no mechanism to recover the revenue. Absence of a mechanism is not a reason for not collecting the outstandings, at best it is a very lame excuse, for this is not just about staff salaries, this is about financial mismanagement. The Rs 10 crore that is outstanding are taxes that have not been collected over the years. There seems to be little that MMC can defend here, for collecting taxes is one of its main duties.
Face it, a private company with collection arrears of Rs 10 crore and no mechanism to recover it would either have gone bust or heads would have rolled. When it comes to a government body, any government body for that matter, nobody is held accountable. Here we have the municipal council that every time it finds itself with nothing in the kitty dips into its depleting reserves and then moves along hoping that the government will bail it out.
That’s a temporary solution. The amount of the bailout will possibly meet just two months salary bill. What does the MMC do after that? What has it been doing the past two months? After having found itself with no money in the kitty in September it had enough time to make amends and ensure that this does not repeat. Instead of learning from mistakes and taking corrective measures, it has allowed the mistake to repeat. This is not good governance, nor good management. This is nothing but bureaucratic lassitude at work, and a council that is more involved in politicking than in giving the town a better deal. For MMC the immediate task in October would have been shoring up the finances. That has not happened. If there is no mechanism to collect outstanding monies, than one needs to be developed, and where MMC is concerned that mechanism should have been in place two months ago if not earlier.
Earlier this year, the MMC budget had been panned as a ‘drab affair’ for neither providing for any major development works, nor any revenue generation. The effect of that ‘drab affair’ is now being experienced and with another four months to go before the financial year ends, the sorry state of affairs could only get worse. Almost 55% of MMC’s outgoings are towards salaries. Due to this development suffers. MMC had optimistically presented a surplus budget (by Rs 8.25crore) this year, though it had failed to achieve the estimated targets of the previous two years. The Council has to be able to generate income and use the income judiciously for development and for meeting other expenses. Government grants will come, but these are for specific purposes and should be utilized likewise.
