Aldona Congress MLA Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira demanded a high level inquiry into the alleged Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan scam in which an amount of Rs 5-crore was siphoned off to a bank account in Calcutta under the guise of payments.
“This kind of a scam where the money was being siphoned off into a private account and I’m told that this has happened because the persons involved created forged documents, got a new chequebook and issued cheques in an account,” Adv Ferreira said.
“This could not have happened without the handiwork of some insider. And perhaps this insider would not trust another fellow Goan and so he chose somebody from a different state and probably to share the spoils of this booty and that is how the money was being siphoned off into that account and out of the state treasury,” he also said.
“Nothing moves out of the state treasury funds unless there are appropriate orders. I even suspect the bank officials who helped in opening this account to also be involved because it can’t be just presenting letters, opening accounts, issuing cheque books and then issuing cheques. There has to be a syndicate involved and each time the needle of suspicion points to the government and its officers,” he said demanding that “a high level inquiry independent of the investigation being conducted by the police and to fix the responsibility and ensure that we don’t have such kinds of scams coming up again in the near future.”
Adv Ferreira said it was no longer shocking that week after week or month after month a scam after scams are taking place.
“We need to call it expected. Because these kinds of things are happening in our state is nothing new,” he also said.
“How could this huge amount of 5 crore go unnoticed? What kind of mechanism is there with the government of Goa to monitor the use of the funds, its availability and its disbursement.
The entire picture will be clear when the investigating authorities place this before the public,” he also said.