PANJIM: GSIDC Spaces interior saga exposed by United Goans Foundation last week, where Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar as GSIDC Chairman overrode all competition to gift away interiors consultancy to a neighbour, gets murkier as from consultancy to contract, it all smacks of nepotism.
In this second part of the expose, this time on GSIDC Spaces interior works contract tender; Herald found out that even former Panjim MLA and then Jt Secretary to CM Parrikar as a government servant benefitted from the GSIDC contract as a part of the winning consortium despite conflict of interest. What investigations also reveal is that then Vice Chairman and current Sanquelim MLA Pramod Sawant too overrode GSIDC officials to allow a barred entity to bid for the contract.
After the appointment of consultant, Ameet Sukhthankar on 28/02/2014 (read our earlier story on edition dated October 22) GSIDC published the tender for “Interior works for office premises for Depts/Corporations at EDC, Patto”. Interestingly, the Assistant Manager Nitha Gopi raised a red flag on the estimates presented by Sukhthankar because the consultant had escalated the project cost from Rs 6,00,36,443 to Rs 7,85,06,421 without any reason. Her concerns were, however, ignored.
During that time an entity, Knchan Associates, which was banned from bidding in any GSIDC tender wrote a letter to the MD of GSIDC requesting clearance from GSIDC to participate in the tender. The letter was forwarded to Pramod Sawant who at that time was vice chairman of GSIDC.
Along with three other companies, namely Godrej Boyce Mfg Co Ltd, Concept Creator and Damian, the banned firm Knchan Associates participate in the tender bidding process. Sukhtankar evaluated the bids and submitted the Technical Bid Evaluation report. In the report, the consultant pointed out several deficiencies with regards to Knchan Associates. It was noted that Knchan could not comply with Schedule A and that it is not fulfilling the post-qualifying criteria too as required by GSIDC. Further, the report clearly mentioned against the completion certificates of Knchan Associates as incomplete.
The consultants in their report recommended that only the technical bids of Godrej Boyce and Concept Creator were in order whereas those of Knchan and Damian were found to have shortfalls as per technical and financial criteria as required by GSIDC. But interestingly it was added that they may be given more time.
On 25/06/2014, the GSIDC board was apprised of the issues with regards to the tender and the restriction on the participation of Knchan Associates and the matter was put up before its 128th Board meeting. Shockingly, the Board took a decision to relax earlier resolution No. 3467 by modifying the conditions of restrictions on Knchan.
A month later, the financial bids of the four participants were opened, and interestingly the once disqualified Knchan Associates became L1 bidder due to lowest quote and won the tender contract. The most intriguing fact was that Knchan Associates quoted 22.35 percent below the estimated cost of the project. In its complaints to the Governor of Goa, the Vigilance and Anti- Corruption Bureau, UGF has pointed out that without the inputs from the consultant, who is a major influence in GSIDC tenders, such an outcome would be unthinkable.
In August 2014, a meeting was held between Sukhthankar, GSIDC officials and Knchan Associates in Panjim. The meeting was attended by Sudesh Sangodkar and Neeta Gopi of GSIDC and also had representatives of Ameet Sukhthankar Architects and Knchan Associates. Shockingly, the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) consultant who attended the meeting on behalf of Sukhthankar was Siddharth Kuncalienker, who at the time of the meeting was the Joint Secretary of the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and was drawing a salary from the government of Goa. Being a public servant he undertook a government subcontract for consultancy jobs under Ameet Sukhthankar.
UGF has in its complaints demanded that Kuncalienkar, current Vice Chairman GSIDC who was then Jt Secretary to CM, be made culpable and booked under Sections 7, 11 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.
