PANAJI: Nearly a year after PWD minister Ramkrishna Dhavlikar ordered the department’s principal chief engineer Uttam Parsekar to look into allegations that an American
consultancy firm bribed state PWD officials and a minister to obtain government contracts, chief minister
Manohar Parrikar said on Friday that “there is no such case reported at any of the police stations in the state of Goa.”
Parrikar also said that the state government had not sought information about the case from the US department of justice (DOJ).
The CM made these statements in a written reply to Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, who sought to know the status of the CDM Smith bribery scam which involved Goa government officials.
The case pertains to Boston-based consultancy firm CDM Smith, which admitted before the DOJ that officials of its India subsidiary bribed government officials to obtain a highway construction supervision and design contract, as well as a water project contract in Goa.
Between 2011 and 2015, employees of CDM Smith’s division responsible for India operations and CDM India illegally paid bribes to NHAI officials in order to receive contracts from them, the US-based company said as part of a self-disclosure process. Additionally, CDM Smith’s division responsible for India and CDM India paid $25,000 to local officials in Goa in relation to a water project contract, the DOJ said.
Chief minister Manohar Parrikar
