Former Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat, who headed the Congress government in the State during the alleged bribery case involving a US firm in 2009, has denied intervention of any of his ministers in clearing the project in question.

“All the tenders for the JAICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) project were issued as per central public works department norms. There is no intervention of any minister in it,” Kamat told PTI today.

He said the role of any State department comes to the fore only while deciding estimates for the tender. “Once estimates are drawn there is no possibility of any Minister interfering in it,” he said.

Kamat said a consortium from Japan was the lowest bidder for this project for reviving the water and sewerage system in the State. “Anyone can allege that he paid money to the Minister but there should be proper base to support it,” he said.

Union Defence Minister and former Goa CM Manohar Parrikar has hinted at the involvement of two ex-ministers in the alleged bribery case involving New Jersey-based construction management firm Louis Berger over a water developmental scheme in the State.

The firm has been charged with bribing Indian officials to win two major water development projects in Goa and Guwahati.

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