PANJIM: PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral on Wednesday said that the government will conduct re-examination of all the candidates who had applied for the 386 Junior Engineer (JE) and Technical Assistant (TA) posts in 2021 even as the Opposition members demand a House Committee to probe the alleged “cash for job scam.”

Replying to a starred question jointly tabled by Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai, Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar and Quepem MLA Altone D’Costa in the Legislative Assembly, Cabral said that re-examination will be conducted in free and fair manner and suitable candidates will be selected based on merit. As the PWD is facing acute staff shortage, it approached the Vigilance Department and sought permission to restart the recruitment process through written re-examination; he said adding that the Vigilance Department has permitted the same.

The Minister said that following allegations of “cash for job scam” in 2021, the then government kept the entire recruitment process on hold and initiated a probe through the Vigilance Department. Few of the candidates had also approached the High Court in this regard.

Cabral said that nearly 450 posts are vacant in the Engineering Section of PWD and acute shortage of staff is hampering the works of the department, even promotions are kept on hold, he added.

The Minister told Sardesai that there was no policy for regularisation of service of TA staff, who submitted their representations after the High Court order.

Alleging Rs 70 crore ‘Cash for Job scam’ in PWD recruitment process, the opposition demanded the House Committee to probe the charges. They further demanded that the entire recruitment process be now carried out in a transparent manner through either GPSC or Staff Selection Commission. Sardesai said that even the then BJP MLAs including the present Minister Babush Monserrate had alleged Rs 70 crore scam in PWD recruitment process.

All the posts were advertised in January 2021.