By Special Correspondent.
What for the cause of Goa the Goans from Kuwait have done, none other expatriate Goans have done. Two big experiments Kuwait Goans have performed, one in support and promotion of Konkani mainly thru the establishment of “NOVEM GOEM DAILY” movement and the other thru business venture by erecting “HOTEL GOAN HERITAGE” at Calangute. One experiment of Novem Goem has failed not because of the fault of Kuwait Goans inspite of giving a huge donation for this project in lakhs of rupees in late seventies and early eighties but it failed because of the irresponsibility of the members of Novem Goem committee comprising learned Goans such as Doctors, Lawyers, Journalist and Social activists. The management of Novem Goem with excess of money at their disposal beyond their requirement, sent as donation by Kuwait Goans not only failed this project but they have also failed the Kuwait Goans and other donors as well.
The second experiment is the huge Hotel Goan Heritage project which is in existence and functioning almost since last three decades. It looks shaky now in the hands of board of directors comprising some impotent directors including corrupt ones. Vincente D’Souza then a highly dynamic and a prominent Goan working at Kuwait Customs was the initiator and the founder of Gulf Goans Hotels Company that built the Hotel Goan Heritage at Calangute. Flav Pimenta was the first Chairman of this company who left Kuwait by leaving his very lucrative job in the Oil company in Kuwait to take care of this company and in fact he did so till his retirement. Because of his sincerity, knowhow and dedication with hard work the Hotel came up. He was supported well from Kuwait by the entire board based in Kuwait including the Managing director Mr. Vincente D’Souza.
The early Board based in Kuwait was very sincere and dedicated to the development of the company. The board members worked tirelessly even by spending money from their own pockets to develop this project. They worked sincerely because everyone had a genuine interest and a high stake as directors in the company, none had peanuts as his stake. Because they had high stake they worked responsibly, some of them not even taking any personal benefit for them, on the contrary they made lot of sacrifices for the sake of this Hotel. Service to the company was their goal. Their main motto was the unity of the board and collective responsibility. But now the situation is totally different and the board is a devided lot. There are factions now in the board, one of which is allegedly working under the direction of Alex Wilson Coelho who is based in Canada but was involved when in Kuwait in scandals and corruption. It looks he doesn’t like upright persons in the board for this reason he is as informed, from behind the curtain implanting his own tainted candidates against good and productive sitting directors in the forthcoming board election scheduled on 27th of this month.
Hotel Goan Heritage is the baby of the share holders around one hundred who originally came forward to form this company to erect this edifice of Hotel Goan Heritage. It is a symbol of expatriate Goan entrepreneurship. These shareholders were all based in Kuwait though many of them are now permanently settled in Goa and in the West. All these shareholders have great responsibility to save this project from going into the hands of rogues supported by Coelho who otherwise as a resident of foreign country has got no right to be in the board because by being abroad he cannot contribute in anything for the development of the project. So too the other two board members based in Kuwait. For this reason since last 25 years there is not much development.
It is a pity that all the three board members stationed outside Goa are not showing any concern for the company. If they had any concern they would voluntarily abdicate their chairs in the board and allow somebody more productive from Goa to replace them. Theirs is the attitude of the shameless Goans who are crazy after power and honour just like our cheap politicians. Ultimately what great one can expect from the persons coming from the “hoi polloi” background and intellectually backward tribe? Their association in the board is detrimental to the development of the Hotel Company because they are useless in the board.
As given to understand, two of the persons contesting the forthcoming election allegedly backed by the Coelho panel are Wilson Rodrigues and Verlekar who earlier were both thrown out by the AGM for not being upright in their dealings as directors. Since their antecedents were bad and yet they are contesting again that means they have their eyes on something else which they can acquire for themselves only by entering into the board because the board is become very lucrative for some to gain financial benefits and cheap prominence. Hence, the Shareholders must make a point not to elect such defective candidates and instead elect the good, efficient and productive sitting directors one of them is Filipe Ferdinand the second highest stake holder and the other Chef Jerry Cal who is the greatest asset to the Hotel as he is the only director having vast knowledge of Hotel line.
There is a sizeable number of shareholders settled outside Goa, some of them are in the West while a few of them in Kuwait. When they send their proxies they must make sure that their votes do not go to the corrupt and to the rogues who are all out to devour for themselves the financial benefits meant for the shareholders. One of the perfect examples of the loot was the purchase of Dhargal property with the initiative of Coelho, Verlekar and Rodrigues. This property falls into the Orchard land category which means useless for development.