VASCO: Noisy scenes and heated arguments dominated the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) meeting on Tuesday as councillors from the opposition camp grilled MMC Chairperson Lavina D’Souza demanding to know why she used an official letterhead to appeal for donations. They also sought an explanation as to why the chairperson made a special note in the appeal letter asking the donors to issue cheques in her favour.
“I have no clue as to under which provision of municipal laws the chairperson first used the official MMC letterhead and then put a note in the appeal letter asking that the cheque be drawn in her name if the festival was organised by the municipality,” former vice chairperson and councillor Premanand Nanoskar said.
Councillor Pascoal D’Souza said, “This is nothing but a clear case of a scam by a few council members who were part of the Baina Beach summer festival organising team. I demand that there be an inquiry initiated to make things clear.”
MMC Chief Officer Melvyn Vaz, surprised by the allegations in his first council meeting, made it clear that if he was asked by the council to make a similar note he would have refused. “I have to verify all the aspects in the allegations but if the chairperson would have asked me to do the same thing I would have surely rejected it as MMC cannot ask for funds in personal name,” he said.
Director of Municipal Administration, Elvis Gomes, when contacted said, “The council is free to organise any festival but when it comes to collection of payments or donations if MMC is involved in the festival then the payment has to come directly into the MMC account and not in any personal account. If such a thing has happened then it’s wrong and not according to the municipal laws.”
The MMC Chairperson has refuted the charges and said there is no scam as alleged by the councillors. She said the note was put because the festival committee members wanted to pay advances to the event management company to start the work for the festival. “The council had no money to pay as the funds allotted from MMC were not obtained and it was decided by the committee members to ask for cheques in my name to avoid any further delay,” she said.
The meeting also discussed other issues including the delay in completing pre-monsoon works, resolving the issue sublease in municipal property, and other development works.
