GIBA gets new President

The Goa IT Business Association (GIBA) election was an action packed

political drama with intrigue, accusations and suspense all thrown in.

Allegations and counter allegations were leveled against certain members-one

side led by Prashant Kuncolienkar and the other by Balkrishna Prabhudesai, the

erstwhile President of the association. Some of the allegations were about

indulging in horse trading and two members were debarred from voting. There were

also some issues about region-based politics that were raised.

In a closely fought battle, Prabhudesai lost his post to Kuncolienkar by a

margin of two votes. Following this, Muzaffar Kadri was elected as VP, Vinayak

Nayak as General Secretary, Shrivallabh Sardesai as Treasurer, Gene Lobo as

Joint Secretary. Vinay Mhambre, Ashley Delaney and Mandar Manjrekar were elected

as Executive Members of the association. The term of the new office bearers will

begin on April 1, 2009.

Sources revealed that the issue cropped up during the upgradation of members,

which started in the second week of March. GIBA has two kinds of

membership-permanent and temporary. Temporary members do not have any voting

rights, but can participate in association meetings. However, as per the

procedure, a temporary member can become permanent only after paying a certain

fee.

Prashant Kuncolienkar President, GIBA

After the last date of upgrading membership, which was March 14, around Rs

48,000 was deposited in the account of the association in cash to get permanent

membership of 12 people. A source said that this was allegedly paid by outgoing

President Prabhudesai, who wanted these people to vote him into retaining his

post of President.

On the other hand, the outgoing office bearers rejected the upgradation

applications of two temporary members, for certain reasons. But after a lot of

debate the said people were allowed to vote. What's noteworthy is that

Prabhudesai also lost by a margin of two votes.

When contacted, Prabhudesai refuted all the charges. “Why would I pay to

upgrade the membership of 12 members? If such is the case then I would have paid

for 20 members and won,” he shot back. The outgoing President lamented that the

allegation leveled against him was the result of deterioration in the level of

politics in GIBA, in the last few years. He claimed that people were divided on

the geographies of South and North Goa.

“Due to this low level of politics, certain decisions I had taken for the

interest of the community were not supported by a group of people. I think

rather than fighting amongst ourselves, we should stand together and fight for

our common interest. Whatever be the circumstances, I want GIBA as an

association to grow to an extent where it can safeguard the interest of channel

community against national distributors and vendors,” added Prabhudesai.

When contacted, Kuncolienkar, the newly elect President said, “Now we all

have to come together, and work for the betterment of the channel community,

which is fighting a battle of survival in this time of slowdown.”