NT NETWORK
PANAJI
The preliminary reports recently prepared by commissioner of the Corporation of the City of Panaji Deepak Desai as regards the permission for road cutting issued to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd from 2013 to April 2016 by the CCP, and sopo/ fair fees collected from 2011 to 2016, observes financial as well as administrative misappropriations on the part of the employees of the corporation and fraud on the part of the contractors appointed to collect the sopo/fair fees, resulting in substantial financial losses to the city municipal body.
The reports have been forwarded to the directorate of municipal administration for initiating action against those responsible.
The first report, observing that there is no standard rate followed by the CCP for issuing road cutting permissions, further maintains that in case of such permissions issued to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd to lay optical fibre cable, there exist serious discrepancies.
“The first such permission given to the company on June 27, 2014 was issued for the length of 20.9 km, for which the total money deposited/ fees paid by the company was Rs 10.45 lakh plus Rs 1 lakh, and security deposit of Rs 50,000,” the report maintains, adding that the second permission was given on April 12, 2016 for the said agency for the same purpose for the length of 5,470 mts and for 21 chambers for which it paid an amount of Rs 37.40 lakh plus Rs 5 lakh; thus there is a huge difference of rate applied for granting the permission.
Speaking about the payment of fees, this report states that in case of permission issued for 27 chambers out of the 55 chambers, and digging of road for a length of 5,470 mts, the two demand drafts, which were deposited by the agency with the technical section of the CCP, were not deposited in the bank even after processing and approval of the then CCP commissioner.
“Furthermore, the permission continued for 27 chambers and digging of road for a length of 5,470 mts without depositing the demand drafts in the bank, till it came into light on July 14, 2016,” it adds, mentioning that both the demand drafts were allowed to be lapsed.
The report further observes that once the failure to deposit the two demand drafts was discovered on July 14, 2016, the two new drafts were submitted by the agency to the CCP, on July 15, 2016, and deposited in the bank on the same day, in a hectic manner by Subha Amonkar, the junior municipal engineer, “to save himself from further allegation”.
“As per the statement of the CCP cashier Jerry de Melo, the file related to depositing of the demand drafts of the agency was brought to him by Amonkar. The noting was signed by Amonkar, besides John Abreu, the municipal engineer, Grade-I, and Kapil Phadte, deputy commissioner on July 15, 2016,” the report adds, stating that the noting was not signed by municipal engineer, Grade-II as also not signed by the commissioner.
“However, the file was marked to cashier by the deputy commissioner, with Amonkar telling him that he would take the signature of the commissioner afterwards.”
The second report maintains that “On going through all the files pertaining to collection of sopo/fair fees and pay parking in the basement of municipal market for the present year, it is noticed that there are discrepancies and irregularities, and other files were called for the period from 2013 onwards.”
“After going through all these files pertaining to this subject, it is revealed that the full amount of sopo/fair fees and pay parking fees were not recovered from the concerned contractors, Rajan Mayekar for the period from 2013-14, Jose Francisco Gracias for the period from 2014-15 and Rajan Mayekar for the period from 2015-16,” it notes.
“Accordingly an inquiry committee was appointed under the CCP deputy commissioner to enquire into the whole episode and submit the report within 15 days,” the report informs, observing that since the inquiry was not completed by the deputy commissioner, the corporation in its meeting held on July 27, 2016 resolved and authorised the commissioner to take back all the related files pertaining to sopo and other fees, which were in possession of deputy commissioner, and to deal with the matter by the commissioner.
“All the files were taken back from the deputy commissioner on July 29, 2016 and also files pertaining to the particular issue for the period from 2011 were also considered,” it mentions.
The report finally states that two of the cheques submitted to the CCP by Mayekar for the year 2013-14 were returned by the bank as there had been no sufficient fund in his account, as also same thing occurred in case of three cheques submitted by Gracias for the year 2014-15, however no action was initiated against the said contractors, which showed gross negligence, lapses and failure on the part of the dealing hand, Narayan Kavlekar, the UDC at the corporation.
“Also contract was again allotted to the defaulting contractors even though cheques were not realised for their previous term,” it concludes.