Goa has many junket rajas
The six MLAs whose joys of travelling to Brazil to watch the World Cup and soak in the amorous sights were cut short by a media expose and campaign, have valid reasons to feel short changed.
Goa has had a history of MLAs and ministers, mainly those linked to the tourism departments, who have been very busy tourists for the sake of promoting Goa’s tourism. But as CAG reports have revealed, these tourists haven’t nearly done much for tourism while spending money from the taxes we pay.
The CAG in its report, ending March 31, 2012, has severely indicted Goa’s junketeering ministers and MLAs. The change of government has not changed that trend much.
A national TV network went viral with this report on Tuesday which was incidentally published by local dailies towards the end of last year. But it is worth restating the contents of that report.
The state tourism department participated in 38 international travel marts (ITMs) and organised 15 road shows worldwide, for which an amount of Rs 19.47 crore was spent. No visitor books were maintained either at the ITMs or the travel marts in the country to figure the number of visitors and their feedback. All the reports included a few photographs but no MoUs were signed during any of these road shows or ITMs.
The CAG report also said that the website of WTM-London gave exclusive online access all the year to exhibiting companies to cater to WTM audience. However, after spending Rs 2.77 crore during 2007-12 for participation in the WTM-London, the department did not advertise Goa via the WTM website.
Meanwhile, between August 2010 to November 2011, GTDC conducted 14 road shows incurring an expenditure of Rs 4 crore. Not a single MoU resulted from these road shows.
There’s more. The total annual budget for electronic campaigns was spent in one campaign proposed by M/s AMO Communication Pvt Ltd.
This report is just one of the indicators, though a very significant one, on how the State’s money has been squandered merrily by successive governments and their peripatetic tourism ministers who have used their position for a constant world darshan, forgetting that their job involves bringing more tourists to Goa and not increasing the tourism.
Herald demands that a clear protocol and process be established as a template for all foreign tours of ministers, MLAs and officials. The purpose of the tour and the desired objectives should be validated. Following this, a proper selection of the delegation should be done, highlighting the role of each specific member. A tour report detailing the achievement of all the objectives should be filed and uploaded on that departments website for all to view. All the expenses incurred for the tour should be uploaded as a PDF document for public viewing. And most importantly, if the desired results are not forthcoming from road shows and international travel marts, all such promotional activities should be suspended till a review is done of all previous junkets and clear guidelines laid down before all such tours are sanctioned.
We are a State which does not have endless reserves in the treasury. The State is using every rupee of its borrowing budget and selling stocks to keep the economy running. Meanwhile with each fresh borrowing, the cost of debt repayment is going higher.
New investments are hard to come by. Close to Rs 500 crores is needed for capital expenditure. With the resumption of mining still under a cloud, we can’t afford to send MLAs and ministers on joy rides. If the government doesn’t put a stop to this, public spirited citizens need to move court to enforce rules governing foreign travel of our junket rajas.
