Speaking at BJP’s Karyakarta Melava in Margao, he endorsed Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar’s stance for a CBI probe in the matter and added that he would write to the prime minister and Union home minister demanding that the same be expedited.
The US Department of Justice recently disclosed that construction management firm Louis Berger had bribed officials, including a minister, with USD 976,630 for a major project in Goa. However, no names were mentioned.
Parsekar had earlier in
formed that when the contracts were awarded, Congress leader Digambar Kamat was the chief minister and Churchill Alemao was public works Department (PWD) minister.
In an indirect reference to Alemao, Parrikar questioned whether the money had been spent on the development of football or transferred to a Swiss bank account.
He also poked holes in the erstwhile Congress government and PWD ministry’s handling of the JICA project. He claimed that when the BJP government took over, they had to revaluate all the proposed funding and budgets for the project and managed to save around Rs 40 crore in the revised estimates.
Parrikar also accused the Congress government of being corrupt and claimed the BJP government had to always undo the mess left behind by the Congress. He reiterated that the state government had unearthed several financial irregularities and scams with the then PWD and that he had been spoken about it in the past.
