the goan I network
MARGAO
With less than a week to go for the curtains to come down on the current financial year, doubts have been cast in the Margao Municipal Council over the auctioning of the sopo contract for the coming financial year as it is now clear that the civic body will start the new financial year without a full-fledged sopo contractor in place.
With the civic body failing to auction the sopo tender on time before the end of the financial year, questions are indeed being raised in the corridors of the civic body whether Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes will allow the Council to extend the existing contract by a couple of months or collect the sopo departmentally as was done in the recent past.
Eyebrows are also raised in the civic body corridor whether the delay in auctioning the sopo was intentional in order to favour the incumbent contractor with an extension of a month or two before the civic body completes the formalities of the sopo auction and finalise the new contractor.
What has created further confusion is the fact that the civic body has till date not held a meeting to take a call on how to go about with the matter -- whether to grant a month’s extension for the incumbent contractor or go for the departmental collection of the sopo till the finalisation of the new contract.
Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes, sources said, is of the opinion that convening a meeting of the Council is the prerogative of the elected Municipal chairperson. He is believed to have put his opinion by way of note in the sopo file, leaving the issue to be addressed by the chairperson and the elected Council.
Chairperson Babita Angle Prabhudesai, when contacted, sought to attribute the delay in auctioning the sopo to the query raised by a councillor whether the Council can allot the sopo to the existing contractor for three years, with a provision that the contractor pay 10 per cent additional revenue to the civic body every year. She, however, conceded that this proposal did not find favour with the Municipal lawyer, who was of the firm opinion that any clause pertaining to the percentage rise in revenue should find mention in the agreement at the time of signing and not midway.
When her attention was drawn to talks in the corridors of the civic body that the Municipality has intentionally delayed the auctioning of the sopo just to favour the incumbent contractor with a one or two month’s extension, Babita said there’s no truth in these allegations, citing instances of the sopo contract being extended by the civic body in the past by a month or two.
Asked whether the Council will go in for the collection of the sopo departmentally till a new contractor is finalised by the civic body, Babita raised doubts whether the civic body will achieve better results if the collection is carried out departmentally. She, however, left the question to be answered by the Council as and when it meets next week to take a call on the sopo contract.
