Allegations of a stag gering Rs 1000-crore tender fraud involving Bagkiya Con structions Pvt Ltd have cast a harsh spotlight on glaring loopholes — and possible complicity — within Goa’s Public Works Department, with questions now mounting over how dubious documents allegedly escaped official scrutiny to unlock massive government contracts. Civil engineer and PWD contractor Manoj S Pai Dukle has filed detailed complaints alleging that Bagkiya Con structions Pvt Ltd secured over Rs 1,000 crore worth of government contracts by submitting forged or ma nipulated work completion certificates to obtain enlist ment as a Class IAA (Super) contractor — the highest tier that unlocks eligibility for the most lucrative pub lic tenders in the state.
The alleged mechanism of fraud, as laid out in Duk le’s complaints, is brazen. At its centre is the Mudi Tank Filling Scheme, a pro ject executed under Kar nataka Neeravari Nigam Limited. Dukle alleged that three separate versions of a completion certificate for the same project were placed before Goa author ities — a discrepancy that alone should have trig gered alarm. More critically, the original Joint Venture agreement dated December 11, 2019, identified Amru tha Constructions Pvt Ltd as the lead partner and Bagki ya Constructions merely as an associate. Yet documents allegedly submitted in Goa tenders projected Bagkiya as the lead partner — a mis representation that would have materially inflated the company’s claimed creden tials. A second complaint tar geted the Akka Mahadevi Memorial project in Shiva mogga district of Karnata ka, valued at Rs 51.19 crore, alleging that it was executed through phased tenders and therefore did not qualify as a single eligible work in the manner it was represented before authorities.
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What makes the alleged fraud particularly peculiar, is not just what Bagkiya Constructions allegedly did — but what Goa PWD alleg edly failed to do. Dukle’s complaints in voke Clause 18.1 of the Re vised Rules of Enlistment of Contractors in PWD/ WRD Goa–2020, which ex plicitly states that experi ence gained under a Joint Venture cannot be inde pendently used by individ ual partners for separate enlistment purposes. Dukle alleged that the enlistment committee simply ig nored this rule — and went further, suggesting the process may have been influenced by vested interests. In other words, this was not an oversight. It was, if the allegations hold, a willful look-away. Goa PWD accepted the documents without properly ver ifying the Joint Venture agreement, Dukle alleged, thereby enabling the firm to secure enlistment and subsequently qualify for major projects worth over a thousand crore ru pees of taxpayer money.
Bagkiya Constructions’ Managing Director K Bagkiya Du rai however has denied that the company submitted forged or manipulated documents and stated the firm was willing to cooperate with any investigation. That willingness will now be put to the test. Principal Chief Engineer Sandip Chodnekar has con firmed that the department’s report on the allegations has been forwarded to the Government for further action — an admission that the matter is serious enough to escalate. Dukle has also taken his complaints to the Anti-Corruption Branch of the Vigilance Department. A senior ACB officer confirmed the case remains at the preliminary inquiry stage, with no offence yet registered.
