A probe body has blamed state-owned telecom officials for irregularities and bureaucratic inefficiency in the bidding process of nationwide broadband internet expansion project which resulted in cancellation of around Tk 300 crore soft loans from Japan.
The investigation body formed by ministry of Post, Telecommunications and Information Technology in the wake of the cancellation of Japan International Cooperation Agency’s loan offer identified five Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd officials, including its three former managing directors, for their role in the irregularities.
The loan, at a very nominal interest rate of 0.1 per cent with a period of 30 years for repayment, was granted by JICA for establishing uninterrupted optical fibre network which was supposed to provide broadband data service across the country.
Shawkat Mostafa, additional secretary of the Posts and Telecommunications Division investigated the incident and said in the probe report that the BTCL proved their typical inefficiency by wasting unnecessary time.
The probe report, however, did not recommend any action against the officials involved in the irregularities. The report said that BTCL’s inefficiency and causing hindrance to implementing projects funded with foreign assistance would tarnish the image of the country.
According to the probe report, the BTCL kept the project pending for four years, ignoring JICA’s request and court order in awarding the project to the lowest bidder, causing the JICA to withdraw the loan.
JICA, finally on May 13, wrote to the secretary of the Economic Relations Division about withdrawal of the loan offer. JICA before the final letter, wrote to the ERD describing how the BTCL was ignoring procedures. But the BTCL continued to insist on time extension and retendering, instead of awarding the job to the lowest bidder, a Turkish company, Netas.
The probe report blamed BTCL’s three former managing directors— Md Azizul Islam, SOM Kalim Ullah and Mahfuz Uddin Ahmed— and project director Ashok Kumar Mondal and director Shahabuddin.
The probe report was placed at the parliamentary standing committee on Post, Telecommunications and Information Technology on Tuesday.
The standing committee expressed disappointment at the probe report for not recommending action against officials blamed for irregularities leading to withdrawal of loan offer.
The parliamentary watchdog formed a sub-committee with Kazi Firoz Rashid as convener to investigate why the probe body did not recommend action against the officials involved in the irregularities.
Firoz Rashid said that the sub-committee will scrutinise the probe report and will recommend action for the officials involved in the irregularities. If necessary, the sub-committee will go for fresh investigation, he added.
A member of the standing committee said they suspected that the due to pressure of influential people, the probe body could not recommend action against the perpetrators.
The probe report stated that it was proved through statements of officials involved in the project that there were irregularities in the tender process and BTCL did not follow the guideline given by JICA.
The report blamed immediate past managing director Mahfuz Uddin and Ashok Kumar Mandal for the irregularities and violating government procurement rule. The report blamed former managing director Azizul Islam for the crisis relating to court cases.
The BTCL floated prequalification tenders in 2011 under JICA fund — Lot A to set up a new telecom exchange and Lot B to set up an uninterrupted telecom network.
Netas, a Turkish company, submitted its bid to prequalify with four to five others in the tender process. But BTCL repeatedly disqualified Netas from the process even though it appeared the company was qualified to carry out the project.
At one stage it led to a government arbitration, followed by a BTCL-initiated High Court case and finally a Supreme Court appeal. At every stage, the BTCL move was declared ‘improper’ and Netas was found a prequalified bidder.
According to official documents, the BTCL cancelled the tender in 2013 and floated a retender the following year. KT Korea and Netas participated in it and Netas was technically qualified by a seven-member technical evaluation committee assisted by a sub-committee in which the project’s consultant Japan Telecommunication Engineering and Consulting Service is a member.
The BTCL was interested to offer the work to KT of Korea, a company which was found to be unqualified for the project as the tender evaluation committee found Netas’ bid to be cheaper by Tk 32 crore than the one from KT.
Source: New Age