the goan I network
PANAJI
Water Resources Minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues told the Goa legislative assembly that his department will soon put together a new set of rules to govern the tendering process in his department which defeats the modus operandi of small cartels of contractors who quote abnormally low bids below 20 per-cent of estimated cost and ensure an entire process goes bust.
Rodrigues was responding to complaints from multiple members including Churchill Alemao, Isidore Fernandes and Francis Silveira that the tendering process in not even a single work in their constituencies had gone through and work order issued over the last two-and-half years during Question Hour.
Alemao said tenders related to as many as 35 works in his Benaulim constituency had hit a roadblock as the WRD did not alter the rules like the PWD where those contractors bidding 21 percent below the estimated cost of the tender get disqualified by default.
Fernandes and Silveira also voiced similar complaints.
Rodrigues meanwhile said, he was aware of the issues and assured that he would resolve the matter by tweaking the rules and evolving a new protocol for the tendering process in his department.
The minister also said that the new protocol will involve the department’s engineers updating the methodologies for evaluating the estimated cost, even taking into account current market rates to come to a true value of a particular work.
Despite Alemao coaxing him to give a time frame, Rodrigues only said it will be worked out soon.
On the question of works related to desilting nullahs and natural paths for storm water, Rodrigues made a case for an amendment to the Irrigation Act if the WRD department is to take up the work without NOCs from the owners of the adjoining properties.
Members including Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat said most of the times it is not possible to get NOCs as owners are either abroad and not around.
Rodrigues said unless the law empowers the department to take up work in public interest, they will be hauled up in litigation since people through whose property the machinery moves to get to the nullahs for desilting later complain of damage to plantations and haul them for trespass.
Works were not getting done, this is why we switched sides, says Isidore
PANAJI: Canacona MLA Isidore Fernandes on Monday offered the alibi “amchim kaman zaina” (our work does not get done) for the 10 MLAs including himself crossing floors recently.
“People have been questioning why 10 MLAs switched sides. This is the reason. We do the hard work of scanning our entire constituencies to identify what needs to be done and after identifying the work tenders don’t get passed and our work does not get done,” Fernandes said.
The legislator was questioning the WRD Minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues, incidentally also one of the 10 MLAs who crossed over from the Congress to the ruling BJP, over tenders not going through and work remaining undone when he made the remark.
