MARGAO
When Margao civic chairperson Damu Shirodkar and Chief Officer Manuel Barretto steps into the Municipal building on Monday, they have a task at hand “ to ascertain from the Municipal cashier and the accounts department the fund position in Municipal treasury.
Reason: The civic body has just a day left at its disposal to arrange funds in order to credit the salaries of the Municipal employees as well as the daily wage and contract workers, besides the door-to-door waste collection contractors on February 28 “ amounting to a whopping over Rs 2 crore.
Inquiries by The Goan have revealed that cash of around Rs 50 lakh may be presently available in the Municipal treasury as per the situation on Friday. Take note, the financial situation may not have improved during the weekend given that Saturday and Sunday being holidays.
The million-dollar question before the civic chief and the chief officer is simple “ how will the Municipality go about mopping up funds to meet the whopping salary bill within a space of two days given that the civic body is required to credit the salaries on the last day of the month on February 28.
In fact, sources say the civic body has a few options at its disposal to somehow arrange the funds within two days. One, question is raised whether the municipality will take a call to defer payment of salaries and wages by a couple of days so that the civic body gets space to try and recover the outstanding tax arrears. Sources say this may be one of the options available before the civic chief and the chief officer, but they run the risk of antagonising the employees and workers and the Municipal Union.
Another option available before the Municipal administration, sources say, is to tap the salary reserve funds by going for the premature withdrawal of the fixed deposits. In the past, the Margao civic body had opted to tap the salary reserve funds by going in for the premature withdrawal of the fixed deposits on condition the municipality recoup the fund. It’s not clear whether the civic body had recouped the fund making it eligible for the premature withdrawal of the salary reserved fund.
The third option, sources informed, is to hope against hope that the cheques drawn in favour of the civic body somehow gets realised in the next two days, and help improve the financial situation to some extent.
The civic body might be also hoping against hope that the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) sanctions the pending grant in aid, salaries. If sources are to be believed, over Rs 1.5 crore grant in aid (salaries) has been pending from the government, with an official saying that sanction of the aid in the next two days may help bail out the civic body and facilitate payment of salaries.
In this contest, sources told The Goan that the office had recently sent a detailed note on the sanction of pending grant in aid (salaries). Nothing, however, has been heard from the government so far. Officials in the know say the government can bail out the civic body by giving the sanction on Monday so that the Director of Accounts makes available the money to the civic body, which can be used for disbursement of salaries.
