get pics - conrad
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As an aam aadmi, walking along the beaches has been an ordeal. The garbage keeps increasing. Broken alcohol bottles are strewn on the sand every morning - a reminder of the binge drinking by tourists who have no other place to drink cheaply. The news that the government is seized of the matter by appointing a contractor to clean the beach was welcome. However, as the days go by, one could see an occasional stray employee picking some garbage, but nothing that was making a difference. The garbage keeps piling up, and now mounds of garbage begun to develop in the bushes. This is because the cleaners rather than lug the garbage collected to the transport point, simply choose to dump it out of sight, or they think so.
Then came the shocker, from Rs 2 odd crore, the government in its mighty wisdom had given out a contract worth Rs 14 odd crore. People being people smelt a rat. The minister as usual did not see anything wrong and tried his best to justify the same but the stench of the scam (forget the garbage) just would not go.
Aires Rodrigues filed a complaint before the ACB on May 15, stating that there was an irregularity in the tender for management of beach cleanliness. Recently, the ACB gave the tender process a clean chit. The minister was quick to say that it vindicates his stand that all procedures were followed. What the minister did not say was the Lokayukta issue is not closed.
Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte also complained before the Lokayukta. To go before the Lokayukta one would have to produce some substantial facts which point to wrong doing but which would need more investigation. Prima facie, the Lokayukta ordered the stopping of payments to both contractors and has asked the Tourism and Vigilance departments to submit their reports.
While the tendering process maybe be as per the procedures, what is not as per procedure is amounts paid to the contractor for the number of people employed. Apparently, on days of the inspection they used to hire casual workers and the inspectors counted them and decided the bill was acceptable. No one checked the employment registers. So that would be the first mistake and the major reason for an inflated contract is the number of people employed. The properly tendered contract has specific clauses with regard to employment.
The second was that as per Municipal Solid Waste Management rules, the vehicles transporting the garbage have to be specially designed and closed. Did the contractors assume that since beaches are not within the jurisdiction of municipalities, open vehicles and that too not dedicated were acceptable? If one has to move garbage everyday, would it not make more sense to have dedicated vehicles rather than hire a different one when needed? Obviously the contractors did not feel there was enough garbage to transport.
There seems to be no proper record of the garbage collected, segregated and disposed scientifically by the contractors as per tender terms. They instead approached the State Level Monitoring Committee (SLMC) and got approval to dump the garbage collected from North and South Goa at the Saligao garbage treatment plant. Is this feasible? Will the contractor collect garbage in Palolem and transport it to Saligao daily? Surely not. There does not seem to be any intention to collect or transport the waste. What is to be noted is both the tender allotment and approval to dump in Saligao comes under the same minister. When I visited a recycler in South Goa, he did point to a small heap of unsegregated garbage and stated that it has come from the beach cleaning contractor. Small consolation.
Then there is the matter of ownership of the two companies that were allotted the contract for North and South Goa. From the records they appear to be owned by the same people. Apparently some changes have been made with regard to the Directors, but ownership is not apparent. When tenders are rigged, the one who is slated to win the tender arranges to get at least two other bids so as to enable the formalities to be completed and make it look like all procedures are followed. If it is just one person bidding i.e. single tender situation, the procedure changes. Maybe the ACB can throw more light on this issue. Were there others competing? If yes, then who were they, and what are their ownership patterns?
It is said that there can be no smoke without a fire, but here we have a case of beaches being cleaned without cleaning and the people or authorities concerned releasing payments seemingly in haste without verifying if the work was actually done. Wonder if as tax payers we can find out what made the Tourism Department raise the tender amount from Rs 2 crore to Rs 14 crore? Was any study conducted to check if the Rs 2 crore contract was effective or not? If not effective then what was done differently in the new tender that addressed the lapses in the Rs 2 crore tender? Too many uncomfortable questions with no answers for sure.
One positive fallout - have you noticed that the contractors assigned to clear garbage from the highway are very active? Maybe that is another contract to be studied.
With the Lokayukta giving its order, will the next step be to get a refund of the money paid as the job is not done as per the terms? Or rather, the beaches are still dirty? Will some action be taken against errant officials who certified the bills? Will examples be made so in future accountability is ensured? Time will tell.
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Blaise Costabir is an alumnus of the Asian Institute of Management and a first generation entrepreneur.
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From Rs 2 odd crore, the government in its mighty wisdom had given out a contract worth Rs 14 odd crore. People being people smelt a rat. The minister as usual did not see anything wrong and tried his best to justify the same but the stench of the scam (forget the garbage) just would not go.
