Was there 2pc more?

It’s not 10 percent but 12 percent of SNC Lavalin’s supervision fees that were to be doled out as bribes in the Padma bridge scam.
The latest documents accessed by the World Bank on the Padma bridge scam now reveal a new name  involved in the corruption. But because of a Canadian court’s injunction, the identity of the person could not be known.
This particular person was supposed to get 2 percent of the fees.
Until now, the World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency (INT) had the idea that five persons were in collusion with the Canadian company, SNC Lavalin, to split 10 percent of the supervision fee in exchange for awarding the $47.5 million supervision job to the scandal-riddled firm.
The INT handed over the second supplemental referral report to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in November last year.
The INT report showed then communication minister Syed Abul Hossain was to get 4 percent of the fees, former state minister for foreign affairs Abul Hossain Chowdhury Kaiser 2 percent, Mujibur Rahman Nixon (the prime minister’s nephew) 2 percent, Prime Minister’s Adviser Mashiur Rahman 1 percent and Bridges Division Secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan 1 percent.
But now the World Bank is in possession of documents that show the deal actually included the particular person.
Meanwhile, a Canadian court has accepted the case against two Lavalin officials on the charge of giving bribes to Bangladeshi officials in the bridge scandal.
The court will decide the date for the beginning of the case on May 29.
However, the court has barred all international and local media and social networks from publishing any proceedings of the case, including any documents.
Last June, due to the corruption allegations, the WB cancelled $1.2 billion loan out of a total of $2.9 billion, the cost involved in the Padma bridge project. But in September, the WB revived the loan on four conditions, including a fair investigation into the graft allegations by the ACC.
But on January 31, the government withdrew itself from the loan as the WB made it clear it was not happy with the anti-corruption commission’s investigation into the allegations and subsequent filing of the case without making Abul Hossain an accused person.
The ACC said it had not found enough evidence against Abul Hossain.
The commission after a year-long enquiry into the allegations over the Padma bridge project on December 17 last year sued seven people on charges of conspiring to commit bribery.
The accused include former secretary of the Bridges Division Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, but the anti-graft body did not include in the case former communications minister Syed Abul Hossain and former state minister for foreign affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury.
The six other accused in the case filed with Banani Police Station are Superintendent Engineer of Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) Kazi Mohammad Ferdous, Executive Engineer of Roads and Highway Department Reaz Ahmed Zaber, Deputy Managing Director of Engineering and Planning Consultant, a local agent Canadian firm SNC Lavalin, Mohammad Mostofa and SNC Lavalin officials Mohammad Ismail, Ramesh Shah and Kevin Wales.

Source: The Daily Star