MARGAO: Fed up with the string of scams and scandals emerging from the Margao Municipal Council (MMC), concerned citizens of Margao submitted a petition to the Chief Secretary (CS), urging a vigilance inquiry to probe financial discrepancies within the council (like the misappropriation of feast fair revenues amounting to Rs 17 lakh) and ensure that public resources are protected from corruption.
The letter emphasises the need to address and eliminate the rampant corruption that has compromised the management of public funds. Among their demands, the citizens have called for the immediate forfeiture of the bank guarantee provided by the sopo collector, as well as a swift investigation to identify those responsible for the financial mismanagement and to recover all losses, including accrued interest.
In the letter, former Margao Chairperson Savio Coutinho explained that the MMC had engaged a sopo contractor, granting rights to collect occupation fees (sopo fees) for the period from November 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024. “The highest bid of Rs 36,00,786 from Om Constructions was accepted by the council,” he said.
However, Coutinho alleged that the sopo collection contract is a ‘benami agreement,’ meaning that the actual party involved in the collection is different from the one named in the contract. He also pointed out that a general clause in the tender notice, which stipulated an increase in the instalments payable to the council if the contract was extended, mysteriously disappeared from the public notice inviting bids. This omission, according to Coutinho, led to a loss of 25% of the monthly instalments.
Moreover, Coutinho alleged that another important clause regarding penalties for delayed payments was “mischievously” omitted from the final agreement with the contractor. “As a result, the contractor, who paid the instalment due on January 31, 2024, only on March 14, 2024— 42 days late —was not charged any late fees,” he pointed out.
Coutinho further revealed that the contractor had provided the council with a bank guarantee of Rs 20,44,253, issued by HDFC Bank, which is set to expire on August 30. “According to Clause 4 of the agreement dated December 11, 2023, the contractor should have forfeited this bank guarantee in February 2024 when he defaulted on payments,” he said. Coutinho alleged that vested interests and politicians have deliberately delayed the forfeiture of the bank guarantee, to allow it to expire without action. He also pointed out that a similar situation occurred in the past, leading to significant financial losses for the council due to the expiry of a bank guarantee that has yet to be recovered.