The ghosts remained, the ghost buster got booted out

The ghosts remained, the ghost buster got booted out
Ex-CCP Commissioner’s report on the mess submitted to the Assembly. No action was taken
TEAM HERALD
Panjim, March 5: This isn’t a new story but its spirit lives on. In an effort to bust the scam of “ghost workers”, the CCP Commissioner Sanjith Rodrigues tenure died an unnatural death.
Barely a month into his second term as Commissioner in the present Corporation, Rodrigues realised that every month cash payments were doled out in the name of hundreds of daily wage workers. Inquiries revealed three things a) The workers were completely fictitious b) they were real but had no valid orders c) they had orders which had expired.
To his shock and horror, the Commissioner realised that officials in the Corporation were deeply involved in handing over cash payments against vouchers which were obviously forged in the name of these workers. He then coined the term “ghost workers”. In an attempt to bring transparency to the system and put the facts on the table, he submitted a detailed report on this as well as other scams of the Corporation to the Goa Legislative Assembly in July 2009, about a  month after he assumed office on June 22, 2009.
In his report he mentioned that according to a circular issued by the Director of Municipal Administration, apart from specific daily wage recruitments, recruitment of daily wage workers in any Municipality/CCP was banned. He then mentioned “It has been noticed that daily wage workers at the CCP have been maintained on a regular basis and (as on date) 352 workers are being paid”.
Of the 352, the orders of 350 had expired, while the orders of 2 were about to expire very shortly. In addition to this lot, 23 more staff were working without any initial order since April 2009.
Added to all this was the issue of redeployment of staff. Four employees, three drivers and one apondator were appointed as daily wage earners. Of the four, there were two who continued to be in service even after the period of their daily wage contract had expired.
The Commissioner’s note went on to add “Though the Corporation is required to render services to its citizens and carry out the obligatory functions… it has been seen that the Corporation in many cases has not followed the prescribed procedure for appointment of daily wage workers and no proper justification was made available to the audit in this regard”.
This document raises serious questions. There is an inquiry and status report which is in public domain. The CCP, though it did not need any such report to make it aware, now had a clear cut study at its disposal. Why didn’t it act? Or at least act in the manner it was expected to?
It did “act” though. Barely 20-odd days after he submitted this report, under the express orders of the man who was running the Corporation by proxy, Sanjith Rodrigues was made to move out of the Corporation leaving the ghost workers or the recipients of the money given in the ghost workers name, intact. His tenure lasted from June 22 to August 19, 2009.
Till today, the concerns raised in that report have not been corrected. In short, all of us have been looted.