PANJIM: The new Goa Lokayukta on Wednesday received his first complaint and it was on the alleged beach cleaning scam. The complaint filed by Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte came six days after the appointment of Justice (retd) Prafulla Kumar Misra as Lokayukta.
Armed with supporting documents, including details obtained under the Right To Information Act, Khaunte accuses Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar, directors and deputy directors of Tourism department – holding charge since January 2013 – and the two beach cleaning contractors for defrauding the exchequer to the tune of Rs 14 crore.
“The whole fraud is a premeditated exercise of the Tourism Department and Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar. Many of the directors were involved in making payment at the behest of the minister, although fully aware that it was a fraud and there were kickbacks to all involved. Besides the directors of Bhumika Cleantech Services Pvt Ltd and Ram Cleaners and Developers Pvt Ltd have conspired to defraud the exchequer,” Khaunte said in the 17-page complaint.
The MLA also suggested 39 names, including that of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar (then chief minister), Chief Secretary (acting) R K Srivastav, former Tourism Director Ameya Abhyankar and GTDC MD Nikhil Desai, as witnesses who could provide inputs.
“The court needs to find the details of the criminal conspiracy and names of persons, who besides the accused named in the complaint are involved in the criminal conspiracy and criminal fraud to defraud the State exchequer… A list of probable witnesses and documents are also annexed (with the complaint) to assist the court in investigating the allegations,” he said.
Khaunte has been on record stating that both firms had common directors and were located in the same premises at St Inez. “Both did not qualify for the tender, but the terms and conditions of the tender were manipulated and changed to suit the said two contractors… It is a criminal conspiracy along with the officials of the Tourism Department,” he stated.
Khaunte also mentioned of the need to terminate the contract to prevent a further drain on the exchequer while also recovering money paid to the contractors for work not done.
He alleged that in order to disqualify local beach cleaning contractors, the accused raised the bar of eligibility by fixing the minimum turnover at approximately Rs 10 crore under the guise that they have to do mechanised cleaning. “However, smartly the mechanised cleaning was done away with and the tender was continued with the same party with manual cleaning. In fact since the mechanized cleaning was removed as one of the requirements, the government had to float a fresh tender and bring it in par with the tenders awarded for the previous years,” he further said.
