By Rajan Narayan

The institutions attached to the Ministry of Health like GMC and Directorate of Health Services are the most protected government organizations in the state. Of the 900 odd private security guards, employed by the government 230 are deployed at the GMC and additional 231 at the Directorate of Health services.

LIKE THE yuvraj Vishwajit Rane who is the only cabinet minister who enjoys X plus security so also institutions under the charge of the Health Minister are the most heavily protected structures in the state of Goa. Of the total of 900 odd security guards employed by various departments of the government of Goa, health institutions such as the Directorate of Health Services (DHS), Goa Medical College Hospital (GMC), Institute of Psychiatry & Human Behaviour (IPHB) and Goa Dental College (GDC) alone account for over 600 of the total of 900 odd security personnel employed by the government of Goa through private security agencies. Indeed, in case of GMC, the ratio of security guards to doctors is 1:1 and the ratio of security guards to total employees is 1:3. If the security guards employed at other district hospitals and primary health centres are also taken into consideration, the number of security guards in securing the health minister’s fiefdoms may well exceed 1000. In sharp contrast, all the other important departments of the government including the secretariat which houses the offices of the ministers and the Chief Secretary and other secretaries, the district courts, the Public Works Department (PWD) and the water resources department together, have less security guards than institutions controlled by the Yuvraj.

50% BHAILLE

OF the total of 900 odd security gaurds employed in various departments of the government of Goa over 50% are from outside the state. Of the security agencies from whom the security guards are recruited, only nine are from the Goa Recruitment and Employment Society while 26 of the recruiting agencies are private. The private security agencies particularly G4S accounts for 600 of the 900 security guards recruited by various government departments and autonomous government organizations like government colleges and Kala Academy. Of the 900 odd security guards that have been recruited by various government and government controlled organizations, 600 odd are employed by the DHSs and the colleges attached to the health ministry. Significantly, the G4S has a monopoly of the recruitment of private security guards. G4S also has the dubious record of hiring the largest number of non-Goan security guards. In institutions controlled by the Health Minister, Vishwajit Rane, of the 620 guards recruited by the G4S, 350 are non-Goans.

NO VERIFICATION

TECHNICALLY and on paper, the private security agencies which provide guards for various government organisations are required to verify the background of the guards they employ whether from within Goa or outside Goa. The private security agencies, hand over the details of the security guards they have recruited and whose credentials they are supposed to have verified, to the district police officials.

CHOR GAURDS

The district police are then required to independently verify the background and credentials of the guards recruited by the private agencies to ensure that none of them have a criminal background. A senior police officer admitted to the Goan Observer that in the overwhelming majority of the security guards, recruited by private agencies from outside the state, the police never receive a reply from the concerned state governments when their details are sent for verification to the police stations under which they are supposed to reside. So much so the Goa police have no clue as to the background of the security guards recruited by various private agencies including G4S which has recruited the largest number of security guards employed by the government of Goa. Senior police officers also confirm that in recent times the number of cases in which security guards themselves were involved in thefts even murder and kidnapping, have been going up steadily.

UNTRAINED GUARDS

AS far as the credentials of the private security guards to function as any kind of security guards the less said the better. Most of the private security guards employed by private agencies are rural youth picked up from backward areas of Orissa and Bihar. Most of the youth hired as security guards are illiterate or semi literate. The majority of them who are recruited from outside cannot speak even English and Hindi let alone the local languages Konkani and Marathi. Unlike in the case of recruitment for government jobs, there is no requirement either for a 15-year domicile or compulsory knowledge of Konkani or desirable knowledge of Marathi in the recruitment of private security guards employed by the government from private agencies. Little or no training is provided to these private security guards and they are paid a pittance of a wage. Whereas the government organisations which hire private security guards, pay the contractors an average of anything from Rs8097 to Rs3666 for every security guard whereas the actual wages paid to security guards ranges from Rs2990 to Rs3900 more often than not for a 12-hour shift which is far below the minimum wage prescribed by the Goa government which works out to Rs4500 for a late hour shift. Considering the salaries paid to security guards, it is not surprising that the quality of security guards is abysmal and that there have been several cases of security guards themselves being involved in criminal activities. The government has no mechanism to check whether the security guards are actually paid the amount claimed to be paid to them and our information is that the private security agencies actually pay less than half the amount they receive from the government to the security guards engaged on behalf of the government.

INSECURE BABUS

ONE would have presumed that given the fact that the Secretariat which houses the government of the state of Goa would have the highest number of security guards. But according to information provided by the Chief Minister Digamber Kamat, in reply to a question by Laxmikant Parsekar in the legislative assembly on the opening day of the monsoon session, the seat of the administration has a total of only 28 security guards who are paid a nominal wage of Rs2990 per head by the Goa Recruitment and Employment Society which has recruited them. The office of the collector of the north Goa district has only one security guard. The Goa State Infrastructural Development Corporation (GSIDC) has three security guards. The Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC), where pilferage of tires and other automobile components is rampant, has 56 security guards. The Public Works Department which is also susceptible to pilferage and theft, has a total of 136 security guards of which 132 are Goans. Surprisingly, the organisation or the ministry or the department which has the largest number of security guards is the health ministry run by Vishwajit Rane.

The DHS has as many as 231 security guards all hired through G4S of which 131 are non Goans. The GMC, Bambolim has 310 security guards including 40 lady security guards. Of the 310 security guards employed by the GMC, 178 are non Goans. In addition to the huge amount of security guards employed by the DHS and the GMC, the IPHB, affiliated to the GMC has 40 guards. And the GDC has 30 guards. Of the 30 security guards employed by the IPHB, only nine are locals whereas the rest are non Goans. Similarly of the 29 security guards employed by the GDC only nine lady security guards are locals.

The question arises as to why the GMC requires as many as 230 odd security guards, the majority of whom are outsiders, when even the seat of government, the Secretariat which houses all the top officials and the cabinet of the Goa government and the Chief Minister, has only 28 security guards. Is it possible that the GMC has as many as 230 security guards because the amount of pilferage and highway robbery is highest in the case of the GMC and the other medical institutions run by the Health Department. Sometime ago, when there were complaints about the insanitary condition of the wards and the shortage of bed sheets, a senior official of the GMC told the Goan Observer that the shortage of cleaning material and linen was due to large scale pilferage. We understand that the GMC constantly suffers a shortage of brooms because they are allegedly stolen by the class four staff who are referred to rather unfairly as servants.

HOSPITAL PILFERAGE

THE pilferage and indeed the highway robbery in the GMC and the DHS and the GDC and IPHB is not limited to class four employees. For years if not decades now, it has been alleged that X-ray films and other consumerables used in the radiology department for ultrasounds CT scans and MRI and even developing fluids have been disappearing and are allegedly diverted to clinics operated by doctors in the radiology department.

HUGE PILFERAGE

There have been constant complaints about how used steel plates are implanted in patients who suffer from fractures while the new plates that they either purchase or given free are diverted to the private practice of the doctors in the orthopedic department. Similarly there is no check on the amount of high priced free insulin and insulin pens and diabetics testing strips which cost Rs25 per strip which are supposed to be distributed free to patients. There is no inventory check on the special dispensary which supplies free insulin and strips and other expensive medicines to patients to check the amount of pilferage. But the security guards employed by departments, connected with the health ministry, are not employed to check pilferage but to ensure that patients, who are victimised by doctors, are not assaulted by families of patients.

GUARDS ILL-EQUIPPED

THE security guards employed by the various agencies of the government are the greatest threat to the security of these organisations. Since the credentials of these security guards are not verified by the police they may well be criminals masquerading as security guards. Since they have no training or not even nominal training, they are useless if there is an attack on these institutions. Since they are not armed, they cannot deal with the kind of terrorist attack that some of the hospitals in Mumbai faced during 26/11. Considering that they are so poorly paid, the risk of they themselves turning or engaging in criminal activities is very high. Indeed, instead of offering protection to the various government organisations and agencies for whom they are recruited predominately from private parties, the private security guards could pose a big threat to the organisations which they are supposed to protect. And since almost half the security guards employed are from outside the state and since the states where they hail from do not respond to queries by the Goa police, there is very possibility of militants and criminals infiltrating the so called security establishments of important departments of the government .

But the government’s preference for hiring outsiders instead of qualified locals is not limited to security guards. One can understand the government recruiting professionals from outside the state because of the non availability of suitable professions particularly to staff professional colleges in the state. But another reply to the Chief Minister Digamber Kamat by former Finance Minister Dayanand Narvekar, reveals that 12 of the employees of the government College of Arts Commerce and Science in Khandola are from outside the state. Similarly five of the employees of the district and sessions court of south Goa, are from outside the state. But the GDC and the GMC have the dubious distinction of having the largest number of non Goan employees.

FEW GOAN GUARDS

THE GDC has as many as 21 employees who have been hired from outside the state. None of them are of Goan origin. Of the 21 non Goan employees 13 are academic staff, two are X-ray technicians, three are dental technicians and one is a laboratory assistant. Even the attendant cum sweeper of the GDC library is a baillo. The GMC, of course, holds the record in hiring non-Goans. The number of non- Goans employed by the GMC is a whooping 171. Of the 171 employees hired from outside the state one can understand the employment of 66 doctors since qualified faculty for medicine are no available in the state. Most Goans who pass out of the GMC prefer to engage in private practice rather than work for the government. What is surprising, however, is that a large number of the nurses and attendants are also from outside the state. As many as 70 of the attendants employed by the GMC are from outside the state. A large number of contract staff, many of whom are not necessarily qualified for their jobs, has also been hired by Vishwajit Rane on a contract basis in the GMC and other medical institutions that he controls. Not surprisingly, all of them are from the Sattari taluka.

WE are not opposed to the hiring of qualified professionals from outside the state but surely one does not need outsiders to fill up the post of nurses, technicians and attendants. Similarly, there is no justification at all for hiring security guards from outside the state. During the tenure of Manohar Parrikar as the chief minister, as a matter of routine, contract employees were recruited from the Goa Recruitment and Employment Society. In fact, before Vishwajit Rane became the Health Minister, the security guards employed in the GMC and the Health Services and other medical institutions, were also from Goa. It is only after Vishwajit Rane took over as Health Minister, that large scale employment of under qualified outsiders as security guards has reached monstrous proportions.