PORVORIM: Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai on Thursday took the government on over an alleged scam in the issue of tenders for electricity pole advertising in the state, wherein a single vendor has been awarded monopoly of both districts, through a tender that does not make fiscal sense, according to the legislator.
“Before 2022, advertisement boards on electricity poles, also called kiosks, were tendered to various companies across the State. Each company would be allocated a particular area, within which they could install kiosks. One client paid more than Rs 5 lakh per year to install boards on 158 electricity poles in Panjim, working out to Rs 300 per pole, per month,” explained Sardesai. “All of a sudden, the government decided to cancel all the contracts of all vendors and hand over the contract for advertising on electricity poles across North and South Goa to only one vendor,” he said. Sardesai further said that besides giving the monopoly of electricity pole advertising as well as installation of non-power cables along the poles to just one contractor, there were other shocking aspects of this tender.
“The total final cost at which the tender for 36 months was awarded is Rs 2.97 cr, which works out to Rs 99 lakh annually. There are no figures of the number of poles in Goa in the tender. How did they arrive at this figure?” he asked as he reeled off details on the floor of the House. “The timing is also shocking- both tenders (North and South) were approved on January 7, 2022, just one day before the Assembly code of conduct. The third shocking aspect is the loss to the government. In short, each pole has been tendered for Rs 8 whereas the gazetted rate is Rs 300 per pole,” he said.
