Team Herald
MARGAO: The decision of the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) to repeatedly grant extensions to contracts of various agencies has come under criticism with questions being raised about the municipalities to complete the tender processes for the same.
For perspective, MMC had issued tenders but was forced to retender them due to technical reasons and the previous agencies have been granted extensions in the meantime.
It may be recalled that at the last MMC council meeting, Chairperson Lyndon Pereira proposed providing extensions on three different contracts.
The first was for the contracts to the two agencies in Margao and Fatorda for collection of door-to-door garbage. Incidentally, these contracts have been extended in the past too and the council has now granted another extension until October. It has however asked MMC to clarify with the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) about the discrepancies raised that forced the MMC to retender these contracts.
“The extension of the waste collection contracts was unanimous, even though it runs into 30 lakhs per month,” said Savio Coutinho, Shadow Council For Margao (SCM) convenor.
SCM further questioned how the contract to one of these agencies, Bapu Environmental Services, was given without following any formalities in the first place.
Elsewhere, MMC also agreed to extend the contract of the Security agency that supplies security personnel to watch various municipal properties for Rs 4 lakh a month. This contract has also been extended on multiple occasions and was extended again by another three months until the e-tendering process is completed even though the councilors questioned the high cost involved and compliance.
In the final case, the MMC councilors did object to the proposal to provide an extension to the sopo tax contractor, whose contract was extended in the past as well and was granted a controversial waiver of Rs 25 lakh that has been red flagged by the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA). The Chairperson was asked why he kept on insisting on inserting a three-year experience clause in the tender for the sopo contract, which received a poor response, which meant MMC had to float a new tender. However the Chairperson refused to agree to the demand to drop the experience clause, which the councilors alleged was meant to favour a select contractor.
