PANJIM: In the mother of all contract scams, the beach cleaning contract issued by Goa Tourism jumped by eight times from Rs 1.85 crores to Rs 14.70 crores, from the second to the third year.
In the just-concluded assembly session the Tourism Minister, Dilip Parulekar, had to face the flak of his colleagues and more so from Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte over the alleged-illegalities in beach cleaning contract.
The legislators felt it was a huge scam as the amount paid to the contractors was huge and in reality no work has been carried out on ground.
Investigations by Herald reveal that there have been other gross irregularities in the appointment of beach cleaning contractors.
Expenses incurred for beach cleaning have also spiraled out of bounds and are not at all realistic. In 2013-14, the expenses for the North Goa Beaches was Rs 85,26,564 (Rs 85.26 lakhs). For FY 2014-15, it shot up to Rs 7,58, 99,999 (Rs 7.59 crores)
The expenses incurred for South Goa for 2013-14 was Rs 1,00,60,452 while the present is
Rs 7,11,99,999.
The total expenditure (for north as well as south) as per old contracts in FY 2013-14 was Rs 1,85,87,016 while the total expenditure as per new contract is Rs 14,70,99,999.
This means the expenses on beach cleaning involving the same beaches has shot up by eight times.
According to the tourism department officials, the beach cleaning contract consists of – the day to day garbage collection by the contractor and transportation to the site allotted to the Contractor and care is taken to collect garbage on the beaches after special events such as festivals, beach weddings, film shootings, or any other tourism related events or any such event by arranging for adequate manpower.
However, in reality nothing seems to be happening.
Two entities but same directors: Contract for North and South actually went to same directors:
The tourism department tenders clearly stated that the tenders for North and South would not be allotted to a same company but that seems to be only on paper.
“It was discussed that the department has proposed two contractors for North and South Goa beach stretches in order to reduce the risk of default and to provide healthy competition. It was, discussed to have one contractor each for two beach stretches, as envisaged in the tender document as it was felt that having more than 2 contractors may not result in economies of scale, thereby leading to possibility of higher expenditure for beach cleaning,” said the file noting of the Dy Director of Tourism Department dated 07/08/13.
The tender for beach cleaning was awarded to two entities namely M/s Bhumika Cleantech Services Pvt Ltd (for North Goa0 and Ram Cleaners and Developers Pvt Ltd (for South Goa).
But what is shocking is the companies have three common directors – Manish Mohata, Shantaram C Pawar and Sanjay Khanvilkar, which even by thought presumption cannot be called a sweet co-incidence.
Moreover, investigations reveal, the offices of both the above agencies are located in the same premises i.e. Sai Plaza building, above NKGSB Bank, next to Gomantak Times office, St-Inez, Panjim-Goa, admeasuring approximately 50 sq mt, which has a typist and one attendant.
Speaking to Herald, Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte who raised the issue in the Assembly questioned the increased contract amount when the work remained the same.
“The system remained the same then how can government justify the increase in amount,” he said.
He also questioned how can three directors of two companies be same.
“The directors are same, they use the same office premise, cleaning work is not carried out properly, no garbage is collected from shacks, the length of beaches are manipulated, and fake names of workers are given to claim payment from the government,” Khaunte added.
Goa State Pollution Control Board’s report pointing at several violations was also bypassed to clear bills to the contractors, documents available reveal.
