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Watergate and bribegate

By AT News |

The Louis Berger episode touches off a seismic wave of reactions across the state putting a former minister in trouble.  
Caught in a simmering controversy, former GMDA minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarms said that no body bribed him and the contract for the water project was awarded as per rule of the government.
The US department of justice has referred the involvement of officials only and minister, said Dr Sarma. He added that the entire decision was executed under the supervision of Japanese bank which is financing the project.
I would welcome any probe in to the process of awarding the project, which was executed in two phases, he said.
GMDA CEO was also among the other signatories of the contract agreement which was signed by Tosuo Horikawa MD of the Louis Berger Group and Ranjan Bajaj associate director of Louis Berger Group Inc. Prasanna M Shah was also the signatory of the contract agreement to execute the mega water development project in Guwahati.
The New Jersey-based construction management firm has been charged with bribing Indian officials to win two major water developmental projects in Goa and Guwahati. The bribe, of $976,630 for a Goa project by Louis Berger, included that to a minister, the details of which have not been disclosed by the US department of justice.

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Assam Times Staff. editor@assamtimes.org

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