MARGAO
Margao Municipal Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar is the cynosure of all eyes.
Reason: Questions are doing the rounds in the corridors of the Margao Municipal building whether the Chief Officer would award work on the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme to a city-based Animal welfare NGO without inviting the mandatory Expression of Interest (EoI) from eligible animal welfare organizations to run the programme in the commercial capital.
For, if sources are to be believed, the Municipal administration has moved a file with a draft agreement on a stamp paper for the signature of the Chief Officer before a formal agreement is inked with the city-based NGO.
Since the agreement with the NGO had reportedly expired around three years ago in 2020, questions are being raised whether the Chief Officer enjoys the powers to further extend the agreement with the same NGO or is required to float an Expression of Interest (EoI) so that the Municipality can pick the best among the lot involved in the ABC programme to tackle the burning stray dog problem.
Questions are being raised whether the Chief Officer can dispense with the codal formalities when the Municipality will be spending an amount of over Rs five lakhs annually on the NGO, thus mandating the civic body to float an e-tender.
The Chief Officer was not available for comment, but sources in the know informed that City Fathers had in the past complained over the ABC programme in the commercial capital. Against this backdrop, questions are being asked whether the elected Councilors will be taken into confidence before the Chief Officer executes the agreement with the NGO.
Incidentally, it’s unclear whether the legal cell of the Margao Municipal Council has given its nod to ink an agreement with the NGO without inviting EoI or complying with the mandatory codal formalities.
“In the fitness of things, the MMC Chief Officer should float an EOI to ensure that the civic body receives bids from eligible NGOs so that the best amongst the lot is picked up for the job. The existing NGO or those which have carried out the ABC programme in the city in the past can also participate”, informed a civic official.
