PANJIM: In a major victory to Tourism Department, the Arbitrator has dismissed Rs 59.03 crore claim filed by the beach cleaning agencies, Bhumika Cleantech Services Pvt Ltd and Ram Cleansers and Developers Pvt Ltd, against the department.
Both the agencies, whose contracts were terminated by the Tourism Department on December 5, 2016, had filed independent claims before the Sole Arbitrator N A Britto, appointed by the High Court, for payment of unpaid bills, loss of business and illegal termination of their contract.
Addressing media persons on Friday, Acting Director of Tourism Sanjiv Gadkar said that the agencies had claimed Rs 59.03 crore on various grounds and the same has been dismissed by the Arbitrator.
Bhumika Cleantech Services Pvt Ltd, which was dealing with North Goa beach cleaning, had claimed damages and compensation of Rs 26.44 crore, recovery of Rs 4.78 crore and interest of Rs 1.34 crore.
On the other hand, the South Goa beach cleaning contractors, Ram Cleansers and Developers Pvt Ltd’s claim was for Rs 20.65 crore towards damages and compensation, Rs 4.65 crore as recovery and Rs 1.15 crore as interest.
Gadkar said that the department had outsourced the beach cleaning operations to the two agencies in the year 2014 at a cost of Rs 14.9 crore for a period of five years, to be renewed after every 15 months. “It was noticed by the department that the major scope of work contained in the tender remained to be executed by the contractors,” he said.
He pointed out that despite issuing show cause notices on several occasions, the agencies failed to improve on the cleanliness, thus attracting lot of criticism in media and even being discussed in the State Legislative Assembly.
The allegation of corruption was investigated by Lokayukta and the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB).
Following termination of the contract in December 2016, the agencies had approached the Government to appoint an arbitrator but the same was declined. As such, they had then moved before the High Court.
