MARGAO
The Margao Municipal Council has finally initiated an internal departmental inquiry against suspended employee Yogesh Shetkar in connection with last year's Holy Spirit feast fair fund embezzlement case.
Questions, however, remain unanswered about when the Margao Municipal Council will go about recovering the Rs 18 lakh amount from the suspended municipal employee; whether the municipal employee is liable to pay the entire amount when he is believed to have technically received around Rs three-odd lakh from the vendors at the fair.
While the Margao Police had arrested and released the employee on bail, questions are raised in the corridors of the municipal building about the avenues before the civic body in recovering the embezzled amount.
All these questions have indeed come to the fore as it will be a year next month since revenue from the feast fair did not come into the municipal coffers due to the lack of a foolproof system in the collection of fees from vendors participating in the fair.
Margao Municipal Engineer Deepak Desai recorded the statements of the suspended employee Yogesh Shetkar in his chamber on Tuesday morning. The internal inquiry was termed as a preliminary inquiry by civic officials, given that the employees have, for the first time, responded to the notice to join the inquiry.
Sources in the Margao Municipal Council, however, said the ongoing inquiry by the civic body is part of an internal inquiry against the suspended employee as per the service rules in force, to decide on the further action to be initiated against the employee.
A municipal official said the inquiry has nothing to do with the recovery of the embezzled revenue, adding that the municipality will have to initiate separate proceedings to recover the amount.
After the arrest of the suspended employee in December last year, Margao Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar had told the media that the MCM would leave no stone unturned to recover the Rs 18 lakh amount from the suspended employee. Till date, however, the fate of the MMC’s decision to recover the amount remains unknown.
