PANAJI
After a delay of over one and half year, the State government constituted three-member technical committee is likely to submit its report on the alleged “corruption”, “irregularities”, and “illegalities” in the iconic Kala Academy renovation work, within a fortnight.
The committee, however, is granted extension till the next Assembly session to submit the report, with proper recommendations, after it failed to submit the report within 60 days, from the date of its constitution in January, 2023.
The committee, under its new chairman WRD Chief Engineer Pramod Badami, met ten times, and is currently recording the statements of various officials from the departments of PWD, Art and Culture and the contractors, to whom the works were awarded, post which the findings would be compiled.
Badami, took charge in March, this year, after its former chairman - Principal of Goa Architectural College Dr Ashish Rege, retired in February, without conducting a single meeting. The first meeting was held in April.
When contacted, Badami said that the preparation of the report is in its final stage and it will be presented to the government in the next ten to fifteen days time. “It’s a confidential report and we have no authority to speak on it,” he said.
Sources confirmed that the committee has gathered all the documents, from the Public Works Department (PWD) - the nodal agency for executing the renovation work, pertaining to the estimates and payments related to various renovation works of Kala Academy. Also, the details were obtained with regards to works, for which order was issued on nomination without tendering process and the total expenditure involved in those works.
“The recording of the statements is in the final stage. All those department officials, who were part of the renovation work, were summoned by the committee,” sources said adding the government had granted time till the next Assembly session, to submit the report.
The other two members of the committee are KG Gupta, head of the department of civil engineering, Goa College of Engineering, and Sandip Chodnekar, general manager of Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation.
