Contractor’s appointment up to finance dept now: Manohar Ajgaonkar

Panaji: The tourism department, which has found itself in the eye of the storm for failing to appoint an agency for beach cleaning, continues to have no clarity on when a new contract for the work will be signed.
Tourism minister Manohar Ajgaonkar passed the buck to the finance department saying the file containing details of the lowest bidder has been submitted before it, which should pave the way for the appointment of the new beach cleaning contractor.
“I have done my part. It (file) is now with chief minister Pramod Sawant, who is the finance minister,” Ajgaonkar said, while replying to a query as to how soon would a new beach cleaning agency be appointed. Since the new tourism season is set to start in a month-and a-half, it is expected that the new agency will be appointed before that, sources said.
The tourism department has been using the services of Drishti Lifesaving Pvt Ltd for beach cleaning for the past two years, without going through a formal tendering process. It appointed Drishti as a temporary measure in December 2016 and commenced the tendering process a few months later, which is yet to end. In the monsoon session of House, the leader of the opposition Digambar Kamat had raised the issue. The House had held a 30-minute-long discussion on the issue.
Renewal of Drishti Lifesaving’s contract for beach cleaning under general finance rules (GFR) 184 is completely in violation of the law, he said.
Ajgaonkar had denied any kind of illegalities and said that everything was done as per the rule book.
More recently, Congress and waste management minister Michael Lobo took up the matter, with the latter tweeting that beach cleaning was in shambles and asking whether Goa was wooing tourists to see garbage on the beaches. Congress had alleged a Rs 141.5 crore scam in beach cleaning. It had also said that Ajgaonkar’s cabinet colleague Lobo had exposed all the “garbage of beach cleaning”and asked chief minister Pramod Sawant to act on it.
Lobo said that despite Drishti getting an extension of the beach cleaning contract, no work was been done.
“This is going on for years. If I and tourism minister sit across the table and discuss the issue, we can come out with a solution. The chief minister should mediate,” he said. The controversy may have died down now for now, but it is to be noted that ever since the government opted for a professional agency for beach cleaning in 2014, the beach cleaning issue has been a continuous source of controversy.