15 months on, MMC yet to fill up vacant post of head clerk

Well, it’s now almost 15 months since the post had fallen vacant after the retirement of the head clerk last year.

The post fell vacant around the same time when the Margao Municipal Council had just got a new civic Chairperson Lyndon Pereira. Lyndon had last week stepped down from office after presiding over the post for 15 months. Sadly, neither the City Fathers nor the Administration has shown any urgency in filling up the vacant post.

What has raised many an eyebrow is that though the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) had met to fill up the post of head clerk and market inspectors, the committee had conveniently avoided filling up the head clerk post while filing the posts of market inspectors.

When The Goan had sought to find out the reasons from the MMC officials over the delay in filing up the posts, a standard reply is being advanced that the head clerk post will be filled up along with other posts by convening the DPC meeting, raising many an eyebrow in the corridors of the civic body over the exact reason behind keeping the post vacant.

Questions are being raised why an important post is not being filled up for the last 15 months.

“It is quite surprising that the head clerk post is being allowed to remain vacant when it is an important post in any administrative set-up. It is equally surprising that the Union of employees has also not made a forceful demand to fill up the vacant post,” sources said.

Sources added: “Are the powers that be worried that the post is not going to the candidate of their choice? What had prompted the DPC to postpone filing up the head clerk post when it was listed first on the agenda? Can the DPC postpone taking a call on certain posts when they were supposed to take a call as per the roaster?”

Take note, another head clerk post, which had fallen vacant, is believed to have lapsed after the civic body failed to fill up the vacancy during the time frame.