“I welcome the decision of Parsekar to call for a probe. I am ready to face any questions as I have done nothing wrong in this case and I was not even aware about the consultant. I am not a technical person to appoint consultants that is done by the concerned technical team of engineers,” Alemao said.
He, however, insisted that all tender contracts were awarded as per norms. He denied having any knowledge of the consultant and said he did not think any government engineers and officials were involved.
He opined that given the cost of the tender, the level of scrutiny must have been very high and that there are procedures in place to appoint such consultants but that he had never signed any file regarding Louis Berger nor had he met any official from the company.
Alemao also criticized Parrikar for his baseless accusations to avoid the real issue of how the BJP government paid Louis Berger Rs 14 crore as technical consultants for Mopa airport and questioned the deal given Parrikar’s self-proclaimed knowledge of the alleged JICA bribery deal.
“How much money has Parrikar taken for the Rs 14 crore deal? If he claims to have known about these dealings why did he go ahead with this deal?” Alemao asked.
He also questioned the demand made by state BJP president Vinay Tendulkar to sack JICA Goa Project Director A M Wachasundar and praised Parsekar for showing common sense and stating that he would listen to what Wachasundar had to say.
“If Parrikar knew all this then why did his government extend the retirement age of Wachasundar by three years? Parrikar worked with Wachasundar regarding JICA as the project was implemented during the BJP government’s tenure,” Alemao shot back.
Alemao, in typical style mocked Parrikar for making false allegations and questioned what happened to the BJP government’s promise of bringing back black money. He ridiculed Parrikar’s allegations and called on him to bring back the bribery money allegedly hidden in a Swiss bank along with all the black money that the BJP had promised to bring back.
Alemao also castigated Parrikar for making tall promises of recovering Rs 35,000 crore lost due to illegal mining and put those involved in the loot behind bars. He questioned how not a single crore had been recovered and that besides the mines director, no person from any mining company had been arrested. He also poked holes in Parrikar’s habit of blaming ‘Churchill Alemao’ of any scam and said Parrikar for the last three years had been accusing him of various scams.
“Who will investigate the money Parrikar’s government’s lost. Why is no one talking about the SkyBus project that was implemented by his government despite the fact that it was not implemented anywhere and there were safety reports advising against it? Three people died and now crores are being spent to dismantle it. Why is there no investigation there?” said Alemao.
Alemao also mocked Parrikar for making such tall promises and recalled how Parrrikar as opposition leader shouted in the assembly about banning casinos but after his government came into power a huge Casino boat entered Goan waters.
Returning to the JICA issue, Alemao said he hoped the probe brought to light all details and said all files regarding the JICA tender were open for scrutiny.
Asked if he was shifting the blame to then chief minister Digambar Kamat, Alemao refuted and said one should talk to the technical engineers like Wachasundar to understand more about the technical procedure of appointing a consultant.
