PANJIM: A water ‘scam’ involving a whopping Rs 60 lakh per annum spent on three water tankers has come to light in the Corporation of City of Panaji (CCP).
Giving details of the scam former mayor and councillor Surendra Furtado has demanded to know the reasons for hiring an agency, (Waterferns from Verna), to supply water by tankers, when these tankers and wells are owned by the Corporation. They further pointed out that during monsoon, these tankers remain idle for almost five months but the salary of drivers and cleaners are paid thereby putting an additional financial burden on the CCP, which is unwarranted.
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“If CCP owns all the three water tankers, and water used is drawn from the wells of CCP then does spending a whopping Rs 1.45 lakh on each tanker per month make any sense?” asked Furtado. “It’s a total scam”, he added.
Secondly, water supplied by these tankers is drawn from CCP’s freshwater well located at the Garcia de Orta Garden.
Herald is yet to hear from the agency and will update this story when it gets their comments.
According to former Mayor Uday Madkaikar, in whose tenure the five-year contract was signed, “During my tenure water tankers were operated and managed by the CCP. But we started receiving several complaints of fuel theft, frequent vehicle breakdowns due to improper maintenance, forged copies of vehicle maintenance bills submitted to CCP, and many other complaints that forced CCP to outsource its operation and management”.
When contacted the present CCP Mayor Rohit Monserrate claimed that the contract terms once signed and agreed upon cannot be changed. “The tender terms are set and then the contract is signed during the tenure of former Mayor Uday Madkaikar, this tender was floated and is still continued,” he said.
While this is all in white the sheer wastage of people’s money has all the markings of a ‘scam’.
The Accounts Taxation Officer of the CCP told Herald that the CCP had awarded a five-year contract to a private agency for the operation and management of its water tankers. “My job is to certify and pay the bills”, the ATO said.
CCP engineer Dylan Fernandes said that one tanker has a capacity of 5000 litres and two have 7000 litres capacity. These tankers are used to supply water to all the municipal buildings, public toilets, and waste management sites and are also used for the purpose of gardening within the city limits, he added.
“Two 7000-litre capacity tankers are used for supplying treated water drawn from Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), Tonca for the purpose of gardening, floor washing and other cleaning activities. The 5000-litre capacity tanker is used to supply clean water to the municipal buildings and public toilets. Each tanker makes six to eight trips per day, Fernandes informed.
“We have outsourced these tankers to a private agency for its operation and management. The contract is given to the private agency Waterferns from Verna, which operate these tankers as per the schedule specified by CCP,” he said adding that maintenance and operation cost include cost of fuel, salaries of drivers and cleaners, insurance, and repair works are borne by the agency to which the contract is awarded.
“A fixed rate of Rs 680 per trip is paid to each water tanker which takes it to the total payment of Rs 4.30 lakh per month excluding Goods and Services Tax (GST)”, he said.
The Mayor said that the work of the opposition is to blame the ruling and so are they doing it even as the fact remains that a total of Rs 5,07,400 including SGST and CGST per month is spent by the CCP on its three water tankers.
