Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday, December 18, has constituted a three-member committee to probe the alleged PWD recruitment scam and has put on hold the recruitment process for the 350 posts till the inquiry gets completed.
Last week, Panaji BJP MLA Atanasio Monserrate had claimed PWD minister Deepak Pauskar had taken bribes from some candidates in the junior engineer recruitment exam, allegations which the latter had refused.
Monserrate said that the recruitment scam in the department was "worth at least Rs 70 crore".
On Friday, chief minister Pramod Sawant told reporters all recruitment in PWD have been kept on hold and a three-member committee, comprising Principal Secretary Punit Kumar, Special Secretary (Vigilance) Ankita Anand and Director of Vigilance, will carry out an inquiry.
"The recruitment will be on hold till the inquiry is completed," Sawant said, though he refused to give a date when the committee will submit its report.
Some 300-odd jobs across various levels in PWD, including of junior engineers and technical assistants, will be affected by this decision.