PANAJI: Former PWD Minister Churchill Alemao, in connivance with some PWD officials, not only procured water storage tanks worth crores of rupees illegally but also distributed them preferentially, the probe by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the directorate of Vigilance in the alleged multi-crore scam has revealed.
ACB had registered an FIR against Alemao, the then PWD officials of PWD – division 9, division 20 and division 3 earlier this week and will be summoning those officials as well Alemao in connection with the case. The PWD officials include principal chief engineer, superintendent engineer, chief engineer, executive engineer, assistant engineer and junior engineers.
According to information, the case is pertaining to procurement of around 6511 water storage tanks and the incident was reported during the period 2008 to 2011.
“Based on source information, a preliminary inquiry was conducted wherein certain violation came to the notice. The case was made out against the accused persons and there was sufficient evidence as such an FIR was registered”, said ACB SP, V Gupta. The FIR is registered under the prevention of corruption act.
“One of the accused has been identified, Churchill Alemao the then PWD Minister whereas we are in process to ascertain the identity of the PWD officials who were holding the concerned positions at that particular time,” said Gupta
According to ACB, Alemao generated the demand through letters claiming many people in his constituency needs to be provided with water storage tanks owing to the problem of water supply. Around 6,511 different capacity (200, 500 and 1000 litres) water storage tanks were procured.
“The justification given for the procurement was that there was problem of water supply as such needed to provide the water storage tanks for the needy. However, the tanks, though were procured illegally without following the proper procedure, but there was preferential distribution. The needy were in fact not provided with tanks,” said Gupta.
According to ACB officials, the procurement of the water storage tanks was a new thing and there was a need to take a policy decision. The probe has revealed that the government consent was necessary which was not taken, however in absence of the consent, there was another way wherein the tanks could have been procured through the Goa Handicrafts Rural and Small Scale Industries Development Corporation Ltd (GHRSSIDC), which was also not done.
By bypassing the process, a tender was issued and water tanks were procured at an inflated price of around Rs 1.45 crore more, claimed ACB officials.
