‘US firm bribed NHAI staff during UPA rule’

NEW DELHI: The ministry of road transport and highways and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) are separately inquiring into alleged kickbacks to the tune of nearly ₹7.5 crore paid by an American company to unnamed NHAI officials for awarding contracts during the UPA government’s tenure, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said in Parliament on Thursday.

Gadkari said the matter came to light during proceedings in a court in the United States.

“In the court there, they have said that $1.18 million bribes were paid … I have asked the NHAI to inquire and the CVC constituted a three-member special investigation team suo motu to look into the allegations,” the minister told the Lok Sabha.

The government had awarded 37 contracts to the company and all but one now stand cancelled, he said. Gadkari quoted a portion of a letter written by the US department of justice. “From approximately 2011 until approximately 2015, employees of M/S CDM Smith’s division responsible for India operations and CDM India illegally paid bribes to officials in the NHAI, India’s stateowned highway management agency and an ‘instrumentality’ under the FCPA, in order to receive contracts from NHAI,” it said. The NHAI has appealed to the US court to provide the names of those who were paid bribes.

Gadkari said, “We can only proceed when the US government gives us the information.”