the goan I network
PANAJI
Stating that the Goa International Travel Mart“2019 (GITM) to be held from October 23 to 25 was clashing with a travel mart in the UK, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Girish Chodankar in a press conference on Sunday demanded that GITM 2019 should be postponed and detailed investigations should be conducted on the entire manipulated process of organisation of GITM.
Chodankar informed that the tourism stakeholders’ apex body Travel and Tourism Association of Goa had also demanded that the said event be postponed to 2020.
The tourism department has already issued work order of Rs 4.97 crore to Mumbai based M/s Alica Purple Advertising Pvt Ltd to organise the GITM.
Chodankar raised a question about the whopping cost of around Rs 4.97 crore to be spent to organise the GITM.
Pointing guns at Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar and tourism officials Chodankar alleged that the bypassing of the standard procedures in organisation of such a big event indicates corruption.
“The documents pertaining to Goa International Travel Mart“2019 have exposed that the tourism department and the officers in connivance with the event management agency have manipulated records to issue work order to the same agency,” said Girish Chodankar.
Showing documents Chodankar informed that the minutes of the 10th State Level Marketing and Promotion Committee (SLMPC) meeting held on January 2, 2019, reveal that there was no agenda item on hosting Goa International Travel Mart -2019 and on recommendation of one member of the SLMPC discussed on it and decided to organize GITM 2019 in April/May 2019.
Chodankar also pointed out that the tourism department however eventually postponed the event to October 2019 without obtaining approval from the SLMPC.
Raising doubts about the entire procedure involved in the selection of the organising agency, Chodankar said that the tender floated had no mention about the final date for submission of bids and the agency selected never gave a presentation before the SLMPC as per one condition of the tender document.
“The act of the department in issuing work order two days prior to the 11th SLMPC meeting clearly showed that the department was in league with the said agency,” alleged Chodankar. He said that conditions in the tender document are manipulated to favour the agency.
Chodankar alleged that the government was doing wasteful expenditure by holding the GITM 2019 in a five-starred hotel with cocktail dinner.
