TEAM HERALD
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
PANJIM: A city based lawyer has lodged a complaint of criminal misconduct and cheating against Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar at the Anti-Corruption Branch Monday for allegedly appointing a specific person as programme officer at the Institute of Public Assistance (Provedoria) despite the position not existing and the post, not being advertised.
“The non-advertisement coupled with a direct order to appoint a specific person, itself reveals misuse of office as Chief Minister, for the benefit of an individual Soniya Phadte,” he alleged adding that the appointment was done without the approval of the Finance department and Cabinet.
Reacting to the news and the matter of the complaint, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said that the appointment was ‘task-based’ as the old age homes under the Institute required urgent attention. “A specific task requires a specific person. The person concerned is capable of doing within a year’s time with requisite qualification and expertise,” he told Herald referring to the appointment.
The programme officer, he said, has been appointed on contractual basis, based on her vast experience working with Sangath, Disha and other organizations, arguing that the government has the power to make such “out of the box appointments” in certain cases and Provedoria was amongst them as it needs to be put in order.
“It is a specific appointment, which is on contract. It is for a specific period. These are not pay scale appointments. Let the ACB investigate,” he said.
Meanwhile the advocate has quoted chief minister’s noting in June 2012, (which he claims to have acquired from RTI documents), which directed the issuance of the appointment of Soniya Phadte as Programme Officer.
“The appointment would be on contractual basis initially for a period of one year at a consolidated remuneration of Rs 40,000 per month. For commuting and traveling for her official duties, she may be provided with a vehicle and all other necessary assistance be extended to her, in undertaking the programmes,” the note states.
The noting also said that the old age institutions under the IPA were pathetic and degraded over the past few years. For this, the infrastructure facilities and staff needed to be reviewed.
