Wasted tax payers money

1) Goa's flying circus
What was the significance of Abade Faria, the hypnotist and Goa's onlycontribution towards the globalization of science, pointing earthwards? Some say he was indicating our politicians (before the Secretariat was shifted) stay grounded. True or false, it appears our politicians interpreted it as "fly, don't ground yourselves." Eye Spy will attempt to tell you how seriously our politicians have takentheir postulation in a series on Goa's flying circus beginning with those who govern the Goa Tourism Development Corporation.
Frequent flyer Destination When Cost
Pramod Shetye, MD London 09-18.11.01 2,26,815
Sadanand Shet Tanavade,
Chairman Dubai 05-11.05.03 56,909
Promod Shetye, MD Dubai 05-11.05.03 61,758
Sadanand Shet Tanavade
Chairman Dubai 04-07.05.04 97,542
Promod Shetye, MD Dubai 04-07.05.04 97,792
Fatima'Sa,Chairperson Portugal/
Spain 18-29.01.06 2,43,638
Armand Duarte,
Manager(Tours) P&S 18-29.01.06 1,87,701
Bernard Araujo, artist London 02-04.06.06 1,00,483
Sanjit Rodrigues, MD P&S 21-06.02.07 3,13,554
Fatima D'Sa,
Chairperson Germany 07-11.03.07 2,17,690

Total 16,03,882

Flying aimlessly
Sadanand S. Tanavade was chairman from 09.07.02 to 13.02.05 and FatimaD'Sa from 16.11.05 to 23.09.07. None of the above persons with the singular exception of Sanjit Rodrigues (and who has actually done agood job of consolidating certain GTDC events and putting Mayem and Diwar on the tourist map) are articulate or even have a decent command over English that forums like the International Tourismus Borse in Berlin would want to hear. For that matter to whom do you sell Goa in Dubai whose hotels have the highest room tariffs in the world and therefore attract mostly upper-end tourists.In fact some of the travel industry ask that politicians keep away from the Tourism Department and GTDC and leave them to be run by professional bureaucrats like Sandeep Jacques and Sanjit Rodrigues and not shunt them out every time a new minister takes over the tourism ministry.
The industry in fact says GTDCs wish list includes desperately needed funds to refurbish some of its properties that need immediate attention. Sanjit Rodrigues succeeded in doing some refurbishment at Mira Mar, Calangute and Colva and sources say if he stays on as GTDCs MD has plans that have the full backing of the Finance Department to build a desperately needed pay car park, resuscitation center for drowning victims with ambulance, toilets and a unique advertising stall in Baga on a huge tract of land GTDC owns in Baga that is slowly being encroached on. The industry says also since attending global tourism marts is unavoidable in a highly competitive industry, Goa has to be represented but only by articulate professional bureaucrats, because these marts are the centerstage where the cream of the industry interact and an opportunity for intelligence gathering as well.

Magnificent men (an woman) in their flying machines
And if you are wondering how Wilfred De Souza, Francisco Sardinha (who tried to sell Goa to the Aussies) and Victoria Fernandes who tried to sell Goa in Nepal do not figure in this list, it is probably because the Tourism Department footed their travel bills. According to Bush Miranda Goa's stall at ITB -07 in Berlin was well designed but had only 10 tables that were mostly empty and not occupied. The VCD the Goa delegation carried was made for an ordinary29" TV and therefore did not work on the Plasma TV installed there. The stall had one window that was used to distribute literature. Behind this window the TV was screening two VCDs, one depicting Goa as a tourist destination and the other medical tourism, but this had no literature to back Goa's medical progress if any or on Goa's hospitals.

Leave GTDC to the pros
In my RTI request I asked if the chairman or officials were given specific tasks on their foreign forays, instead of answering appropriately, a letter written by the former Tourism Director Sandip Jacques to the Government of India seeking permission for Fatima D'Sa, Pamela Pereira, Dy. Director Tourism and Fernanda Vales, Information Asst, Department of Information to travel to Germany was enclosed! Expecting the answers to be fuzzy (for no fault of the hard-pressed clerks/officers answering them) -I asked if the chairman reported his/her achievements abroad to the Tourism Minister. The answer was: not applicable. Were any MoUs or agreements signed as a result of the foreign visits. The answer: no. Insiders in fact that say politicians drag along minor officials only to cover for themselves.

Ticket to fly
That the Tourism Minister and GTDC chairman's posts are the ticket to ride was evident when Micky Pacheco flew to New York in a hurry to propagate Goa accompanied by the Calangute MLA Agnelo Fernandes. Ditto for Fatima D'Sa and Sadanand Shet Tanavade. Even as you read this Micky Pacheco will fly to London to attend another global tourism mart despite the Goa government's 'cooling off period' ban for three months between two international flights.

2) Goa's flying circus
I promised a series on Goa's flying circus earlier after the first .Enjoy this one because approval of these junkets at the cost of taxpayer's money is being withheld as the MLAs and government officials did not have the mandatory sanction of the Government ofIndia. Rajesh Singh despite not being employed by the government was made Director of Information by Manohar Parrikar in return for penning scurrilous anti-Catholic writings that were religious carried by an English daily. Singh a non-Goan who struck it rich in this land of opportunity earlier sold fire-fighting equipment in Vasco da Gama and was a part time journalist as well. Used by the BJP to fire up emotions instead, he is one of the many to fly to Cannes on the pretext ofstudying how the Cannes Film Festival is held and which for inexplicable reasons continues to reccur every year.

Name Date funds advanced Destination Amount (Rs)
Shaik Hassan Haroon 10.09.92 Bahamas 2,80,000
Shaik Hassan Haroon 20.08.93 Cyprus 1,65,000
Dominic Fernandes 06.02.97 Singapore, Malaysia,
Hong Kong 44,893
Churchill Alemao 03.1199 London, New Zealand 54,000
Ramrao Dessai 30.01.02 New Zealand, Thailand 72,000
Anupam Saraph,
Advisor (IT) 11.10.02 Australia 1,23,000
Rajesh Singh 09.05.03 Cannes 1,75,000
Ramrao Dessai 14.10.03 USA, Canada,
Hong Kong, Singapore 2,24,000
Anupam Saraph 10.10.03 USA, Canada, Hong
Kong, Singapore 2,80,000
Francisco D'Souza 23.10.03 Canada 2,24,000
Jayshree Raghuraman 12.05.04 Cannes 29,700
Sanjit Rodrigues 12.05.04 Cannes 29,700
Pandurang Madkaikar 17.05.04 Cannes 29,700
VGS Navelkar, Asst.
Director,Tourism 13.01.06 Portugal, Spain 1,95,294
R. Kothandaraman,
Secretary, Legislature 23.01.02 Maldives 25,200
Karl Vaz 14.06.06 Germany, Austria 3,19,640
Gandhi Henriques,
PS to Vaz 14.06.06 Germany, Austria 1,99,223
Alban Couto,
advisor to Government 27.06.06 Macau 15,000
Francisco Sardinha 31.05.07 Abuja 2,626

According to sources and after the tight-fisted finance ministry recently objected to Goa's frequent flyers, politicians have now began to get various corporations to pay for their foreign junkets.

3) The money circus
This one should remain in memory for posterity. According to Aires Rodrigues the Advocate General SS Kantak is paid on an average 33 times more than the salary of the Chief Justice of India who earns Rs33,000 per month. In other words India's smallest State has the highest paid AG. According to Aires who sourced the RTI the AG was paid Rs.2,33,94,500 between 01.01.2006 to June 2007.

Date Professional fee Retainer
Jan 06 599000 19500
Feb 06 368000 19500
Mar 06 497000 19500
Apr 06 416000 19500
May 06 116000 19500
Jun 06 395000 19500
Jul 06 494000 19500
Aug 06 431000 19500
Sep 06 848000 38500
Oct 06 952000 38500
Nov 06 1136000 38500
Dec 06 1040000 38500
Jan 07 1064000 38500
Feb 07 1168000 38500
Mar 07 1960000 38500
Apr 07 1232000 38500
May 07 64000 38500
Jun 07 608000 38500

Total 1,33,88,000 5,41,000
These two figures add up to the Rs1,39,29,000.
Mind you while the AG was being paid this for god's only knows what, he was also being paid a retainer that was doubled. Yet, despite the retainer, the AG got paid these astronomical amounts. The fees paid to him were revised on April 1, 2005 (a contemptuous joke on the tax payer you think?) and as a result between June 2005 and August 2006 he was paid the arrears ofRs.91,90,00. During this period his retainer too was revised and he was paid arrears of Rs,2,75,500. The two figures add up to Rs.94,65,500. Rs1,39,29,000 and Rs94,65,500 add up to Rs2,33,94,500.Why the retainer was revised when the AG was paid such astronomical fees can happen only in Goa.

Dhavlikar duo are expensive to maintain
Earlier Eye Spy exposed how the Advocate General Subodh Kantak was paid a whopping Rs2,33,94,500 in fees by the law department. In a fresh RTI application I filed to the Goa Legislature Secretariat I have new information that the Speaker also engaged the services of "Sr. Advocate Surendra Desai, Advocate TR Andhyarujina and Advocate A.Subhashini" to fight the disqualification petition against the two MGP MLAs Sudin and Deepak Dhavlikar in the Supreme Court. Desai was paid Rs9 lakh, Andhyarujina Rs5 lakh and Subhashini Rs1.21 lakh. That's a total of Rs15,21,000. Asked "what was the basis or criteria followed while making these payments" –the RTI answer was "payments have been made to the advocates on the directions of the Speaker after obtaining necessary sanction from the government." So, there you are, even the RTI needs fine-tuning. For the moment the Dhavlikar duo are turning out to be a luxury Goa cannot afford.

4) Deep Thinking
E-Thinx Infocom owned by Zahid shroff whose outfit Mahiti Ghar runs 13 such units across Goa is too clever by half for the likes of the Directorate of Information Technology, the IT Minister and the hard-pressed Finance Department. Clever E-Thinx signed an agreement on12.01.04 to set up 30 Mahiti Ghars to provide services like issue of FI & XIV, birth and death certificates, driving licenses etc but could achieve neither objective fully.
The nearly one-sided agreement entitled the firm to free government accommodation, a vehicle to manage all the Mahiti Ghars, telephones, leased lines, computers, printers, UPS, modems etc etc.The agreement also stipulated payment of Rs20,000 per month for the first five Mahiti Ghars, Rs3000 per Mahiti Ghar per month for the nextten Mahiti Ghars. Rs2000 per Mahiti Ghar per month for the next fiveMahiti Ghars and Rs1000 per Mahiti Ghar per month for the next ten Mahiti Ghars. The agreement also incorporated a termination clause in which either side could quit after giving 30 days notice.
After the new IT Minister brought in the more experienced 3i Infotech Limted toreplace E-Thinx as part of his declared wide-ranging and more sophisticated approach to citizens' services and sent the firm atermination notice, E-Thinx dug its heels in with the reportedsympathy of the Chief Secretary and refused to quit.

Delaying the inevitable
E-Thinx refuses to quit despite the fact that the agreements beginning January/February 2004 for the Mahiti Ghars established in Bicholim,Valpoi, KTC bus stand, Panjim, Sanquelim, Rivona and Canacona ended in January/February 2006. To shore up its refusal to wind up theCanada-based Shroff submitted a bill for Rs348 lakh he claimed was financial compensation owed to him. In a separate demand for paymen the claimed another Rs1 cr as concept development charges, whichsources say is farcical, intentionally done as a possible futuretrade-off that could be prolonged by protracted negotiations. Because far superior versions of citizens' services have been implemented inseveral States before. After one such meeting held to negotiate terms attended without forewarning by a lawyer who signed the meetings minutes, Shroff wrote to the DIT claiming his lawyer signed the minutes without reading them.

Official concern
The official concern is which of the two or five-year contracts(though one set of agreements expired) deserve government financial support or whether E-Thinx should be asked to manage with its own finances. To decide the DIT and Finance Department recommend that a committee be formed to investigate and decide. According to sources E-Thinx refuses officials access to any of its accounting records and has not produced records of personnel hired or of the rent it claims it pays. Even its Rs348 lakh claim was not supported by vouchers or certified by a chartered accountant. On the contrary officials say the government can claim from E-Thinx power consumption charges, interest dues on delayed payments owed to it, transportation charges and nearlyRs25 lakh as its revenue share towards issue of Form I & XIV.

Audit concerns
There is concern also on whether the government's internal audit orthe CAG audit will ever approve a proposal on the table for E-Thinx to submit only an affidavit testifying to all personnel salaries, administrative costs, office rent, rentals for computers and as the firm claims rentals paid to private house owners.

5) That sinking feeling
The owner of Jaisu Shipping, the mediocre contractor awarded the task of re-floating and towing the River Princess through an equally dubious contractual guarantee upon which the firm must forfeit a security deposit of between Rs5-5.5 cr intends to stay afloat somehow even though he can't help the sunken Princess. The ship was to be removed in 180 days ie before 20.04.07. Now, it turns out Jaisu had a separate agreement with the Tourism Department on non-interference because frequent inspections it said would interrupt its operations. The department's consultant Indian Registrar of Shipping whom it agreed to pay a disproportionate fee of Rs25 lakh it is said also misled the department taking it for a royal ride. A day before the expiry date of 20.04.07, IRS submitted a report saying the salvage was on course. After 20.04.07 the maximum permissible extension for Jaisu was 30 days but the contract stipulated it had to be asked for before the date.
Sources say Jaisu routinely hoodwinked the government never giving it specific or honest information asking for an extension only on 02.04.07. On 05.07.07 at a meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary Jaisu verbally declared it incurred an expenditure of Rs2.5 cr and the detail recorded in the minutes of the meeting. A few days later however it produced a chartered accountant-certified Rs19.5 cr expenditure statement. Something's on so keep watching this space. And while you wait keep adding up the Rs1 lakh per day contractual fine Jaisu has to pay.

6) Money for nothing
According to the grapevine the latest body to try and hook itself to the gravy train are the three communidade administrators who have asked the government for an annual grant of Rs90 lakh to pay staff salaries that they claim will be reimbursed from the 'derrama' - a formof revenue communidades earn. The problem is, many communidades stopped paying the derrama though some communidades have invested crores of rupees in bank fixed deposits. Not paying the administrators the 'derrama' has hit their revenue earnings. Among the objections raised within the government against giving the grant revolve around the fact that employees who retired from the offices of these administrators continue to draw government pensions though they were not government employees and therefore did not contribute to the government's pension fund established in 2005.
The government has been paying their pensions from the early 90s when the Communidades stopped paying pensions.In south Goa 42 of the 90 communidades owe the government Rs1.49 cr in dues. In the north an estimated Rs60 lakh has to be reimbursed by the communidades annually but is not. According to the government if the'derrama' collected under section 5 of article 125 of the Code ofCommunidade is paid by the communidades, the administrators would have no problem paying staff salaries. Also, agriculture land is being used for non-agriculture purposes to the immense benefit of only a few persons government officials pointed out. Sources even claim the government has little or no inventory of communidade property, audited communidade accounts and annual financial statements.

And finally this bit of tragic-comic news. It appears that it might just be possible that the Code of Communidade was not properly translated into English or was translated verbatim by an inexperienced translator thus conveying the wrong meaning where certain rules are to be enforced. In fact the request for the huge grant may have finally prodded the government to recover its dues including pensions from the communidades and generally investigate the working of the communidades.