Representational.
PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant chose the official 'Vigilance Awareness Week' function at the State Secretariat on Tuesday to publicly warn 'babus' from shirking work or faking progress of development work in rural areas.
In an unusually stern speech at the function, Sawant bluntly said: "Do not cheat me. I am connected to the people. I can get information on any panchayat."
Top bureaucrats, heads of departments and Secretariat staff were in the audience.
He also lamented that officers were often misleading him while reporting on the progress of development work in villages.
Inertia of top officers to facilitate e-governance and their continuing behaviour to shoo away genuine visitors to offices using the Covid-19 pandemic pretext were more grounds on which Sawant slammed the government officials for.
He cited such typical lethargy in the bureaucracy as the reason for Goa slipping five notches in the 'Ease of Doing Business' rankings from 19 to 24 among States.
Sawant also came down heavily on government departments for neglecting their official websites.
Of the 150 department websites he checked, Sawant said nearly half are not functional.
The Chief Minister also told the bureaucrats that although the State suffered a setback financially due to the pandemic his government is now geared to focus on plugging revenue leakages.
Also, austerity and checking government expenditure is another priority he said.
