MARGAO: Nearly eight to ten Margao Municipal Council (MMC) former councillors, besides one senior engineer, are under the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) scanner for alleged unaccountability of the funds’ allotted to them for three different study tours.
MMC said they have failed to submit proper bills within six months according to the guidelines, as the tours were held in 2016, 2017 and 2020.
According to MMC sources the matter has reached the office of the Directorate of Municipal Administration and most likely the hearing will be held by the end of this month, as Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes has recently forwarded the file for further action against the defaulters.
The tours include a visit to Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi in November 2016, a tour to Ajmer, Rajasthan in November 2017 and a recent tour in January 2020 to Mount Abu, Rajasthan.
Lakhs of rupees were sanctioned for the tours and all the concerned councillors were supposed to submit the bills within a period of six months, which they failed to do in a proper manner. Hence, the matter has been referred to the DMA.
It may be recalled that in 2020 six former councillors, including a few from the ruling and besides those from the opposition, along with senior municipal engineer toured Mount Abu, Rajasthan for a training programme on the ‘Development of Green Spaces and Parks under ‘Amrut’.
An amount of Rs 1.21 lakh was sanctioned towards accommodations, Rs 1.2 lakh towards airfare and Rs 2400 towards registration fee as per the order dated January 21, 2020. However, the councillors failed to submit the travelling allowance bills for the said amount on time and as per the required proforma.
Earlier in 2017, 10 former councillors of the previous council had participated in the training programme on Solid Waste Management with a focus on 100 per cent segregation of solid waste held on November 29-30 at Ajmer, Rajasthan, for which Rs 2.72 lakh was handed over to them. In this matter too they failed to submit the bills within six months in order to settle the amount.
On April 27, 2021, Chief Officer had issued notices to all the concerned former councillors to submit the relevant travelling allowance bills within 15 days, failing which necessary action would be taken to recover the amount. However, most of the councillors failed to submit the required documents on duly filled proforma.
Few have submitted the bill to the MMC account section; however, it is not according to the given performa. Besides, these bills have not been submitted within the period of six months, as per the guidelines, sources informed.
When Herald contacted DMA Director Gurudas Pilarnekar, said his office has received the matter pertaining to the same and most likely the case will be taken up for hearing by the end of August.
It also may be recalled that former Chairperson Pooja Naik had announced the cancellation of the tour to Mount Abu in 2020, after criticism from the citizens of Margao. However, six councillors along with a senior municipal engineer went ahead with the tour, excluding the chairperson.
