Embezzled feast fair funds haunt Margao civic body

MARGAO
As the Margao Municipal Council is bracing up to cash in on the revenue from the Holy Spirit feast fair at the Old Market scheduled on Sunday, failure to recover the funds embezzled by the Municipal staff at last year’s feast fair has come to haunt the municipal babus and city fathers.

While the Municipality has instituted a departmental inquiry headed by Municipal Engineer Deepak Desai against the staffer Yogesh Shetkar for the loss of revenue amounting to around Rs 17 lakh, there seems to be no headway either in capping the probe or in the recovery of the embezzled funds.

In a new twist to the controversy, the staffer is believed to have maintained that he has returned funds amounting to around Rs three lakh to the civic body, which he had collected from the hawkers at the feast fair. This has raised questions as to who collected the balance revenue from the feast fair on the occasion of the Holy Spirit feast last year.

Margao Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar, when contacted to shed light on the recovery of the embezzled funds from the suspended Municipal staffer, said the Municipal engineer is conducting an inquiry into the entire episode. “We hope the inquiry is capped at the earliest and the revenue recovered from the staffer,” the Chairperson said.

Sources, however, pointed out that the inquiry conducted by the Municipal Engineer has had just one sitting till date, adding that it may take months before the probe is concluded and the report submitted to the Chief Officer.

The moot question, however, remains unanswered whether the civic body will be able to recover the revenue from the municipal staffer, more so when the staffer has taken a stand that he has returned the amount collected from the feast fair.

This has raised a question as to who had collected the balance revenue from the hawkers and whether the collected revenue was handed over to the staffer or to the taxation officials.

As part of the criminal case, the Margao Police had recorded the statements of the Municipal market inspectors, who were drafted at the feast fair to collect revenue from the hawkers during the seven-day fair.

Meanwhile, Margao Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar has called a meeting of Municipal officials on Tuesday to chalk out the action plan on how to go about the Holy Spirit Church feast fair, beginning on Sunday. Sources said the civic chief on Monday expressed his displeasure over the way civic officials did not show interest in drawing up a plan ahead of the fair.