Cites revenue loss of Rs 3.8 crore due to failure by panchayats
Panaji: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has exposed widespread financial and administrative mismanagement in the handling of the Goa Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Fund, established to provide benefits to construction workers across the state.
The performance audit report, covering the period from 2017 to 2022, highlighted a revenue loss of Rs 3.8 crore due to failure by village panchayats to collect the mandatory 1% cess from construction projects. It also pointed to non-remittance and delayed cess payments amounting to Rs 5.2 crore by builder establishments. Administrative expenses incurred by the welfare board ranged between 7.8% and 99%—far exceeding the permissible limit of 5%.
The CAG also flagged poor financial management, including parking the welfare fund corpus in low-interest savings accounts, resulting in revenue loss. It further criticised the registration of 11,360 unverified individuals—tailors, housewives, and farmers—as construction workers for Covid-19 ration benefits, despite their ineligibility.
Despite repeated opportunities to respond during the March 2024 exit conference, the CAG rejected the explanations offered by the Labour Secretary, the Labour Commissioner, and the Welfare Board as untenable.
The report also pointed to systemic gaps: the absence of a state-prescribed registration fee for large projects, poor enforcement of cess collection rules, and a lack of initiative in registering genuine construction workers. There was also a glaring mismatch between the number of construction licences issued and actual cess contributions received.
As of March 2022, the total fund corpus stood at Rs 198.6 crore with only 18,049 workers registered—reflecting the ineffective outreach and weak implementation of welfare measures in Goa’s construction sector.
