Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar in his written response to our expose carried in our edition of December 22, ‘Tourism Department appointed consultants for master plan without finance and cabinet approval’, said, “All procedures with regards to appointment of the Consultants (KPMG) for preparing the Master Plan have been followed in a transparent manner and all approvals granted with regards to the same”. Herald in turn “rubbishes” this.
Herald has published file notings proving the Finance department has not accorded approval for appointing a consultant for Goa Tourism Policy Master Plan and Programme Assistance.
Herald, on behalf of the people of Goa, sometimes wonders which world the minister for tourism lives in. In the note before the Cabinet meeting XXII agenda item 4 states on 07.07.2015, “Tourism Department submitted the proposal to the Finance Department for acquiring expenditure sanction for an amount of Rs 4.99 crore in respect of Preparation of Tourism Master Plan and Tourism Policy for the state of Goa and Rs 8 lakh per month in respect of providing Programme Management Assistance for a period of five years to be paid to KPMG stating that the above proposal was concurred by the Finance department. HOWEVER THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT SUBMITTED THAT THEY DID NOT APPROVE THE PROPOSAL AND THE SAME WAS RATIFIED BY THE CHIEF MINISTER AND NOT AS FINANCE MINISTER.”
It is also important to note that the Tourism department had signed a contract with KPMG in June 2015, again mentioned in the cabinet note, but submitted the proposal to the Finance department in July 2015. Is this the minister’s version of transparency and correctness of procedure?
Moreover the cabinet note prepared on the basis of which the appointment of KPMG & Tourism and Leisure Advisory Services was cleared said that the “Council of Minister resolved to “regularize”, the appointment. This by implication clearly proves that the appointment was irregular.
The cabinet, took a highly irregular decision to regularize this since it set the precedent of clearing contracts worth crores of rupees, despite the Finance department not clearing it and asking the cabinet to take a decision.
Herald wants the Minister to respond to all of the above. A vague clarification issued through a PR agency, with none of the hard facts addressed, doesn’t impress Herald.
