PANAJI: The recent order given by the Goa Lokayukta to stop any further payment to the two beach cleaning contractors has exposed the scenario wherein the department of tourism had turned a blind eye to the gross irregularities in the implementation of this contract, including ambiguity in the process of handling the garbage collected from various beach areas around the state.
The contractors have claimed to collect almost 100 tonne of garbage from the beach areas in a span of one year, however, they have not provided any evidence regarding the methodology of weighment of this garbage, its segregation and more importantly the scientific disposal of the same, which was one of the primary objectives of the tender.
The highly placed official sources revealed that an amount to the tune of Rs 13.5 crore has been released to both the contractors for the work carried out during the period from September 2014 to March 2016, which includes an amount of Rs 5 crore released within a span of one month, between May 2016 and June 2016. The bills towards the beach cleaning work carried out during the months of April 2016 and May 2016 are under process.
The sources further informed that various irregularities were observed by the officials of the department of tourism in the beach cleaning work during their regular inspections.
“These inspectors had reported absence of workers on the beaches, besides non-lifting of the garbage, inadequate numbers of dustbins, absence of proper uniforms to workers, dearth of cleaning equipment, etc,” the sources maintained.
Furthermore, the sources stated that both the contractors – M/s Bhumika Clean Tech Services Pvt Ltd for North Goa and M/s Ram Cleansers and Developers Pvt Ltd for South Goa – have not paid the statutory dues such as Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and gratuity, and not contributed towards insurance of the beach workers to the Employee’s State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), the Labour Welfare Fund and so on, till January 2016.
Incidentally, the recovery officer of the ESIC and the assistant provident fund commissioner had served various notices to both the contractors on a number of occasions, for failure on their part to adhere to the norms of the labour welfare contributions.
These authorities had also served notices to the department of tourism as the principal employer.
It is learnt from reliable quarters that both the contractors have contributed towards the EPF and to the ESIC under bogus names of beach workers.
These contractors have also not substantiated the deployment of requisite number of workers. The said contractors have further failed to comply with the employees’ state insurance scheme namely ESIC Pehchan Card, an initiative wherein the physical identification of the workers is done and identity cards issued to them.
It may be recalled that the ex-director of tourism, Amey Abhyankar had taken a serious note of these gross irregularities and had stopped the processing of the bills generated by the contractors. He had insisted that the contractors fully comply with the tender conditions to which the contractors did not pay any attention, resulting in their bills being kept on hold for non- compliance.
Surprisingly, Abhyankar was shunted out of the department and the charge was given to Sanjiv Gauns Desai.
It is also learnt that the dealing hands in the department of tourism, responsible for the beach cleaning project, have been recently changed. The sources in the department revealed that the officer, who was given charge went on leave, unable to withstand the related pressures, and has requested the director to relieve him of the particular responsibility.
Meanwhile, the related payment statements provided by the department of tourism revealed that 120 workers were deployed by the contractors during September 2014, while the contractors have contributed towards the EPF for only 40 workers, during the same month.
The beach cleaning contract was supposed to be renewed in December 2015. The decision to this effect was to be taken by a state level monitoring committee headed by the Minister for Tourism, Dilip Parulekar, and comprising the chairman of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation, member Secretary of the Goa State Pollution Control Board, and a representative of the Goa Shack Owners’ Association, among others. The committee has till date not renewed the contract, but has directed the contractors to continue with their work.
Ironically, the department of tourism has processed and paid the bills of the contractors from December 2015 to March 2016, which could land the department into deeper trouble.