MARGAO
In a major development exposing the Margao Municipal Council on the tendering of the Rs five-odd crore door-to-door waste collection tender, the civic body has extended the time for submission of bids to March 1.
The MMC was scheduled to open the bids received by the civic body on Friday as per the tender documents. The civic body, however, decided to extend the time for submission of bids to March 1 after consulting the office of the Director of Municipal Administration after taking into account the request made by the bidders for time extensions.
MMC officials pointed out that at least two bidders requested the civic body to extend the time for the submission of bids since the February 24 deadline has proved inadequate to complete the tendering formalities.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Council for Margao, which had demanded an extension of time for the submission of bids for the door-to-door waste collection, said the civic body was compelled to buckle down to the demands of the SCM, which had charged the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) of maintaining "secrecy" in the tender process.
SCM had alleged that MMC was trying to help the same “favourite" contractor and hence, demanded an extension to the time limit for submitting applications to facilitate larger participation in the tender process.
“The "vested interests" tried their best to flout the previous tender process held in May 2022, to favour agencies that did not qualify, but all their desperate attempts failed," charged SCM convener Savio Coutinho stated.
The waste collection system had come under severe criticism for the appointment of an agency without following Codal formalities in October 2019, and for granting arbitrary extensions to the two agencies since November 2019 till date.
Coutinho said the Shadow Council for Margao had consistently raised the issue which led to the Margao Municipal Council inviting bids for door-to-door waste collection in May 2022. However, as the tender process was not given wide publicity, participation was systematically limited to the same old agencies," he added.
Coutinho stated that they will continue to be watchdogs to ensure an efficient waste management system for Margao.
SCM further demanded a Vigilance inquiry into the matter to fix responsibility against those involved in the shoddy and illegal waste collection contract that resulted in the council making illegal payments to the tune of over Rs 10 crores till date.
