Nearly two years ago, the government took up an around Tk 5 crore project to conduct a feasibility study for an international cricket stadium proposed to be built near the mighty Padma in Manikganj.
Launched in October 2018, under the youth and sports ministry, the project was supposed to be completed by June 2019. Later, it received a one year extension, which also ended in June this year.
But the National Sports Council, the implementing agency, could not even appoint a consulting firm to carry out the study yet, despite getting a one year extension.
While the project was running behind the schedule, the council spent a staggering Tk 70 lakh out of Tk 4.98 crore project on foreign trips of 20 officials as “a component of the project”.
Under the “study tour”, the 20 officials, evenly split into two groups, will travel to Australia and England to gather experience on how stadiums over there were built and are maintained, according to project documents.
Two 10-member parties, one for England and the other for Australia, will feature four officials from the National Sports Council (NSC), three from the youth and sports ministry, two from the Planning Commission and one official from the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the planning ministry.
About the issue, experts say such kind of expenditure in the name of project tourism was a waste of public money, which should be stopped.
“It is highly questionable that such a huge portion of the project budget is earmarked for foreign travel, which has become another common feature of misuse of public money and personal gain in the name of project tourism,” said Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh.
“Questions can be justifiably raised about whether the planned international travels to the selected destinations that are extremely expensive will give any real value compared to the money spent. If the required commitment and drive are available, results of much higher value can be achieved through online communication,” he told The Daily Star.
“The justification of such luxuries, the burden of which is ultimately borne by the people at large, deserves serious review,” he said.
During a visit in 2017, local lawmaker and former Bangladesh captain Naimur Rahman said the project of constructing an international cricket stadium to be constructed at Dhutrabair near Paturia ferry terminal in Manikganj.
Naimur Rahman also said that the prime minister expressed desire to build a stadium close to the river and this area has been selected for its scenic surroundings.
According to the project documents, the government took the decision to cope with the growing popularity of cricket in the country.
There is only one stadium (for cricket) in Dhaka. So, it is important to build another stadium with the capacity of 50,000 spectators. Besides, cricketers also need a world-class academy. So, we need a high-tech stadium complex, which will be modern and spectacular, read the project document.
Since a decision has been made to build the stadium on the bank of the Padma before the appointment of a consultant and without the assessment of the project cost and the opinion of the water resource ministry was sought for that purpose.
The ministry responded by saying that it would require Tk 325 crore for river training of about three km surrounding the proposed stadium site, which is 215 meters away from river banks.
The contractor’s fee of Tk. 3.98 core is the highest cost earmarked in the project seconded by the foreign trip expenditure.
The projected project cost also includes Tk 9 lakh for transport, Tk 5 lakh as honorarium, Tk 3 lakh as management expenditure, Tk 2 lakh for purchasing computers and other electronic devices, Tk 2 lakh for furniture purchase, Tk 3 lakh each for printing and advertisement and another Tk 3 lakh for stationary and other expenses.
Sources said that the NSC again sent a proposal to Ministry of Youth and Sports to submit a plea to the planning commission for another extension for the project.
NSC Secretary Masud Karim, in a letter to the youth and sports ministry secretary on November 25, 2019, said that the process of appointing the contractor/advisor was in progress through open GEP tender, according to the project document.
But according to the PPR-2008, the contractor/advisor should be appointed through EOI and RFP, which Masud said caused complications and delayed the appointment procedure and thus, made it impossible to complete the project on time.
About the delay, Iftekharuzzaman said, “This long delay is symptomatic of the project implementation culture in the public sector. Since availability of the allocated budget has not been mentioned as the justification of the delay, what needs to be looked at is whether it has been caused by inefficiency and lack of commitment of the relevant officials involved.
“This is important because implementation delays almost invariably accrue additional cost and thereby, opportunity for additional profiteering.”
Contacted, Shah Alam Sardar, director (Planning and Development) of NSC, told this newspaper that the work on the project could not be completed due to various reasons and that they wrote to the ministry ahead of time.
“It is taking some time [for the ministry to respond] since it’s a big project. But we hope that the ministry will give us a fresh extension.”
About the budget for foreign trips, Shah Alam said they wanted to see good stadiums so that their experience could be used in the project.
He, however, said with an extension of the project deadline, there might be some changes in the study-tour, as foreign trips are now suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Besides, there are some instructions from the prime minister in regards to foreign trips of government officials, said Shah Alam.
