A US Firm has accepted paying bribe to NHAI amounting $1.1 million

The latest national news has broken out in U.S. where a consultancy firm based out of Boston has confessed in front of the justice department of the United States that its official paid a bribe of $1.18 million during the period of 2011-2015 to the NHAI in India. This statement has forced the Indian agency to start a probe into the entire systems of payments. 

CDM Smith, the alleged company agreed to pay $40,371,38 to the U.S. Treasury as it is the amount that equals the profits earned by the company through all illegal activities including works on highways supervision & design contracts as well as a water project contract in Goa. As confirmed through a communication of the Justice Department, the company is instructed to pay the entire amount to the US Treasury in four installments by October 1, 2017. 

The statement of the company said that the Indian branch of the company, CDM India as well as the division for Indian operations paid bribes to NHAI to get the projects."The bribes generally were 2-4% of the contract price and paid through fraudulent subcontractors, who provided no actual services and understood that payments were meant to solely benefit the officials," the department confirmed in a communication on 29th June. 

It also said that the Indian operations and CDM India also paid a bribe of $25000 for a project n Goa. "All senior management at CDM India (who also acted as employees and agents of CDM Smith and signed contracts on behalf of CDM Smith, including CDM India's country manager) were aware of the bribes for CDM Smith and CDM India contracts, and approved or participated in the misconduct," the justice department said. 

An NHAI official said that the work of identifying the people who took the bribes is on. 

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