Meanwhile, the power, energy and mineral resources advisor Muhammad Fawzul Kabir Khan was given a letter on August 29 citing irregularities and corruption to the authorities of CPGCBL in an international consortium Matarbari project. The letter mentions that CPGCBL has invited international tenders for supply of 9.6 million metric tonnes of coal to Matarbari Power Plant for three years. Despite the mention of experience in coal import and supply, the tender process was delayed for 10 months with the connivance of some unscrupulous officials to give illegal benefits to Meghna Group's Unique Cement Consortium. It is learned that the condition of 'Experience in Import and Supply of Coal' has been changed/expanded four times in a row to include experience in import of iron, fertilisers, chemicals, cement, foodgrains as qualifications instead of coal. Meghna Group's Unique Cement has filed a writ in the High Court against an international consortium in view of tender irregularities. The hearing started yesterday in the Supreme Court. The next hearing will be tomorrow Tuesday. So far the state has not participated in the hearing, sources said.
Meanwhile, the Navy has arrested seven people while smuggling electrical cables worth around Tk 15 crore from Matarbari thermal power station in Maheshkhali upazila of Cox's Bazar. They were arrested last Saturday night. Earlier yesterday morning, after receiving the news of the raid, the managing director (MD) of the power plant, Abul Kalam Azad, along with several senior officials, fled. After that yesterday, the power plant's MD Abul Kalam Azad was arrested by law enforcement agencies while fleeing abroad through Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Maheshkhali Police Station Sukant Chakraborty said, "An influential gang has prepared to smuggle a large quantity of electric cables from Matarbari Power Plant - based on this information, a team led by Lt. Commander Syed Saqib Ahmed of Maheshkhali started raiding the power plant on Saturday afternoon. . Navy personnel seized electrical cables worth Tk 15 crore from Jetty No. 4 of the port adjacent to the power plant by carrying out raids from afternoon to night. These electrical cables were being smuggled to Chittagong by filling four containers in a barge ship. In this incident, the Navy immediately arrested seven people. According to the police, the arrested persons said during the interrogation of the Navy that these electric cables were being taken for sale to the private company Iqbal Marine in Chittagong. In the interrogation, they also said that the power plant's project director and MD Abul Kalam Azad, chief engineer Md. Saiful Islam and project security officer Mohammad Alfaz Hossain are also involved. In the meantime, after complaints were raised in the tender process of importing coal for Matarbari power plant, there were complaints of major irregularities in the tender for the sale of dry ash (burnt ash) produced from the coal used in the power plant. This complaint is against CPGCBL, the project implementer. According to the project sources, some unscrupulous officials are trying to get the tender to the lowest bidder even though the job is supposed to be given to the highest bidder in the sale of coal dry ash.
One after another corruption reports came to light, CPGCBL MD Abul Kalam Azad, Executive Director (Finance) Mohammad Shahid Ullah, Acting Chief Engineer Mohammad Moniruzzaman, Executive Engineer (Design) Kamrul Islam, Assistant Security Officer Alfaz Uddin and DGM (Deputation) Motiur Rahman. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has decided to investigate the allegations of corruption and irregularities worth Rs. In an investigative report of Bangladesh daily, it came out on August 22, that during the Awami League government, there has been a serious corruption and irregularity incident of about 154 million US dollars or 1 thousand 770 crore rupees in this power plant of CPGCBL. It shows that illegal payment of variation of Tk 106 crore 34 lakh 70 thousand for 16 works, Tk 68 crore in the name of sand filling in project township area, Tk 257 crore 77 lakh by construction of concrete road instead of bitumen or pitch road, CPGCBL own scrap through sale without auction. 53 Crores, 12 Crores in the name of Institutional Development, 26 Crores through sale of leftover material of the project contractor, besides 26 Crores by changing the country of origin of various valuable goods and by influencing the supply of low quality goods to the project.
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