Crippling Corruption by Awami League regime

[idune]

INSURANCE COS
11 licences to be issued, mostly to ruling party loyals

At the fag end of its tenure, the government on Thursday decided to award 11 licences for new insurance companies, mostly to businesses loyal to the ruling party Awami League.

The Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority at a board meeting on the day approved awarding nine for life insurance companies and two licences for general insurance companies.

The new life insurance companies that will get licence are Mercantile Islami Life Insurance Ltd, Taiyo Summit Life Insurance Co Ltd, Sonali Life Insurance Co Ltd, NRB Global Life Insurance Co Ltd, Protective Life Insurance Co Ltd, Guardian Life Insurance Ltd, Chartered Life Insurance Co Ltd, Best Life Insurance and Zenith Islami Life Insurance Ltd. The Shikder Insurance and Sena Kalyan General Insurance will get licences for setting up general insurance companies.

Sources in IDRA said that sponsors of most of the new life insurance companies had links with the ruling Awami League or party leaders.

They said that the IDRA took hurried decision to award the licences as the present government was approaching the end of its tenure.The IDRA called for hearing of 75 applicants for the licences between June 16 and 20 after the authorities had received 77 applications till May 15, the last date of submission of applications.

The authorities took a decision only in 15 days to award the licences because of the pressure from the government high-ups, said sources.The government recently awarded licences for nine commercial banks to some members of parliament of ruling alliance and businesses loyal to Awami League amid widespread criticism.

IDRA chairman Shefaque Ahmed could not be reached despite repeated attempts for his comments. Earlier, the previous Awami League-led government had issued 11 licences for new insurance companies in 1996-2001, with three given on the last day of the government under controversial circumstances in 2001.

There are 62 insurance companies operating in the country; 43 are general insurers, 17 are life insurers while the remaining two are government owned — one life and another non-life insurance company. Managing director of an insurance company told New Age on Thursday that the decision to allow 11 more insurance companies would crowd the already saturated sector.

According to the new licencing conditions for general insurance, minimum share for sponsors have to be Tk 4,800,000 and for life insurance it would have to be Tk 3,600,000.

11 licences to be issued, mostly to ruling party loyals

 

[idune]

AL leader’s family set up offshore cos

David Bergman

A top Awami League politician along with his family established a network of offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands, a country known as a secretive tax-free haven, New Age can reveal.

In July 2006, Kazi Zafarullah, a member of the party’s 12-member presidium, along with his wife Nilufer Zafar, the current member of parliament for the constituency which her husband previously held, became directors and shareholders of two offshore companies.As directors of one of the companies, documents show that Kazi and Nilufer opened up a bank account in the Singaporean branch of a Swiss bank, making themselves joint signatories.The application form which the pair signed gave details of their Gulshan address and stated that the company was for ‘investment purposes.’

Two years later, in April 2008, their son Kazi Raihan Zafar became director and shareholder of another British Virgin Island company, with his wife Fahra Murad (providing a Canadian address) and his mother Nilufer, who has recently been appointed chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of foreign affairs, also joining him as directors by the end of June that year.

And then after six more months, whilst a ‘fugitive’ from a court verdict which had sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment for failing to submit his wealth statement to the Anti-corruption Commission, Kazi Zafarullah - a distant relative of the prime minister by marriage - set up a further offshore company in which he was the sole director and shareholder. Kazi Zafarullah, told New Age that ‘the information is not accurate as far as it relates to me any my wife…. I don’t know about the rest.’

The information on the Zafarullah family offshore trusts, which also includes one set up by the AL presidium member’s sister, her husband and two nephews all based in New Zealand, is contained amongst 2.5 million electronic files which were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and which was then shared with New Age.The leaked ICIJ documents, which relate to the period up to early 2010, provide information on the ownership of a total of 120,000 offshore companies and trusts set up in the British Virgin Islands and other offshore tax havens.

The leaked files include information on dozens of Bangladeshis, many of whom are well-known businesspeople in the country, who own or owned offshore companies. After 2010, it is possible that the companies were dissolved or otherwise became defunct.

People often use the secrecy afforded by offshore companies to place assets beyond the reach of their country’s tax authorities although people may also use them for entirely lawful purposes.
In the context of Bangladesh, which unlike the developed countries tightly restricts the outflow of money, residents using offshore companies also risk being in breach of the foreign exchange laws.Bangladesh bank officials have confirmed to New Age that the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947 and the associated guideline do not allow Bangladesh residents to establish offshore companies.

Abu Hena Mohd. Razee Hassan, the Bangladesh Bank deputy governor responsible for the bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit told New Age that he could think of ‘no legal reason’ that could justify setting up such a company.Ziauddin Ahmed, the director general of the Anti-Corruption Commission in charge of the unit within the commission which investigates money laundering, added that it was ‘suspicious’ for any Bangladeshi to own an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands and that his unit would undertake inquiries into any information provided.

Three months ago, after the Indian Express newspaper had published information about offshore companies owned by prominent Indian politicians and business men, the country’s finance minister P Chidambaram announced an investigation. ‘We have taken note of the names and inquiries have been put in motion in respect of the names that have been exposed.’
The Council of the European Union has also formally requested the ICIJ to release to each EU government any information from its leaked cache of offshore financial data that may involve citizens of those countries.

In 2008, during the caretaker period, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed cases against four members of the Zafarullah family for owning assets disproportionate to their known sources of income. It also prosecuted the former lawmaker for money laundering and failing to provide a wealth statement.

After the Awami League government had come to power in 2009, the High Court quashed three cases relating to Kazi Zafarullah, in one of which he had been convicted and sentenced for two years imprisonment, and the Anti-Corruption Commission withdrew cases against his wife and two sons. There are no outstanding cases against any members of his family. On July 27, 2006, Trustnet (BVI) Ltd, which provides ‘customised corporate, trustee and fund administration and management services to private individuals,’ incorporated the company Hanseatic Ltd in the British Virgin Islands.

On that same day, Portcullis Trustnet appointed Kazi Zafarullah, at that time an Awami League lawmaker in a Faridpur constituency, along with his wife Nilufer, to be the first directors of the company.

The two directors then signed a resolution which made themselves joint shareholders and allowed them to set up a bank account at the Singaporean branch of the Swiss bank UBS AG. ‘The account be operated either by Zafarullah Kazi or Zafarullah Nilufer signing singly for an unlimited amount,’ the resolution stated.

In a Trustnet ‘due diligence’ form, seen by New Age, the two directors wrote that the ‘nature of business’ of the new company was for ‘investment purposes.’ A copy of Zafarullah’s passport which was provided with the form stated that his profession was ‘member of parliament.’
On the very same day, the two family members also became directors and shareholders of another British Virgin Islands company Pathfinder Finance Ltd, which had also been set up a month earlier by Portcullis Trustnet.The information provided to the ICIJ suggests that this second company may have been dissolved before 2010.

On July 16 and 17, 2006, just 10 days before the married couple established these two offshore accounts, Zafarullah, according to charges drafted two years later by the Anti-Corruption Commission, withdrew a total of Tk 4.3 crore ($551,800) from the Banani branch of Premier Bank.
The charges, which were later quashed by the High Court, do not state what Zafarullah is alleged to have done with this money and the commission was unaware at the time that he owned any offshore companies.

At the end of 2008, in her disclosure to the Election Commission of her financial income and assets, Nilufer did not mention her ownership of either of these two companies or the holding of any foreign bank accounts.

On January 11, 2007, a state of emergency was announced and two years of caretaker government ensued which resulted in significant attention on Zafarullah’s financial affairs.
In April, the politician was detained and then shown arrested in relation to an extortion case and the Anti-Corruption Commission started investigating his financial affairs.

On July 26, 2007, Abdullah Erman Yousuf and Abdullah Ahsan Yousuf, the two sons of the politician’s sister Sabiha Mahboob and Abdullah Ahmed Yousuf, the sister’s husband, all of them living in New Zealand, became directors and joint shareholders of the British Virgin Island offshore company Assets Connexion Ltd. In September, Sabiha became a director.

With Zafarullah out on bail, but with cases proceeding against him, on April 15, 2008, Kazi Raihan Zafar, the younger son of Kazi Zafarullah, bought another offshore company, Elderstar Ltd, becoming its director and sole shareholder. One month later, on May 12, his mother Nilufer also became director of the company and on June 5, Raihan’s wife Fahra Murad, registering with an address in Toronto Canada, was also appointed.

Zafarullah told New Age that his son and his son’s wife live in Canada. It has not been possible to contact those of Zafarullah’s family members in Canada and New Zealand who became directors of offshore companies.

By now, Zafarullah was in effect absconding from court and not present to hear a special court sentence him to two years’ imprisonment for failing to submit a wealth statement. However, on November 27, 2008, the former lawmaker found time to become the sole director and shareholder of yet another British Virgin Island offshore company, Majestic Success Ltd.

Notes made by Portcullis Trustnet suggest that the offshore service agency may by then have become aware that Kazi Zafarullah was subject to allegations of corruption. On December 10, 2008, two weeks after Majestic Success was set up, Portcullis wrote a note on the account stating, ‘This case will now be handled as ENHANCED DUE DILIGENCE which means that every single event or transaction involving the transfer of funds in excess of US$10,000 must be notified to Compliance for their records. (If Compliance consider it necessary further enquiries may be made.)’

A similar note was made on the same date on the records of Hanseatic Ltd, set up two and a half years earlier.

In the charge sheet that subsequently alleged that Kazi Zafarullah was involved in money laundering, it was alleged that in 2005 he had distributed Tk 5 crore amongst 10 accounts belonging to some of the same family members, including his wife and his sister, who subsequently become directors of offshore companies.

AL leader?s family set up offshore cos

 

[idune]

Rental power plant looting money going offshore. See how Summit and Mercantile both owned by Awami party man are in think of off shoring looted money from Bangladesh.

-----------------------------------------------------
Local businessmen’s link to offshore cos revealed

David Bergman

Directors of some of Bangladesh’s biggest business conglomerates, including the Summit, the Square, and the United group of companies, own or have owned offshore companies in the secretive tax haven of the British Virgin Islands, New Age can reveal.

Information about their offshore company ownership is contained amongst the 2.5 million electronic files which were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and which have been shared with New Age.The files contain information from the databases of two offshore company service firms including Singapore-based Portcullis TrustNet which was the firm that these businessmen paid to set up their British Virgin Island companies.

From the ICIJ files, New Age has identified over 20 Bangladeshi business people who have owned an offshore company, though there may be many more who have registered using a non-Bangladesh address or who have set up offshore companies using different service agencies.

The information from the files – much of which is now public through a database on the ICIJ website – is only accurate as of the beginning of 2010 since when some or all of these companies may have been closed down.

The disclosures follow New Age revelations on Friday that a leading Awami League politician and members of his family owned a network of offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands. Kazi Zafarullah denied both his involvement and that of his wife, Nilufer Zafar MP.

Business people around the world often use the secrecy afforded by offshore companies to conceal assets or place them beyond the reach of their country’s tax authorities – though they can also use them for entirely lawful purposes.An additional issue for Bangladesh residents, those living in the country for at least six months in any particular year, is the need to comply with the foreign exchange laws which impose tight restrictions on the outflow of money.Many businessman argue that in today’s internationalised world, the country’s strict foreign exchange regulations make it difficult for them to conduct normal and necessary business transactions within the law.

From the information in the ICIJ leaked files Summit Industrial and Mercantile Corporation Pvt appears to be the Bangladesh company whose directors have had the most involvement in purchasing offshore companies, with its chairman and five directors owning or having owned six offshore companies between them.

All five are members of the same family — Aziz Khan, the company’s chairman, his wife Anjuman Aziz Khan, their daughter Ayesha Aziz Khan, the chairman’s brother, Jafer Ummeed Khan, and Aziz Khan’s nephew, Md Faisal Karim Khan. Other than Jafer Ummeed Khan and Md Faisal Karim Khan, they registered their British Virgin Island companies through a Singaporean address.

Aziz Khan told New Age, ‘I am a permanent resident of Singapore. I have lived there for many years, and in exile in 2007 and 2008. During my stays I have conducted businesses. All my businesses are legitimate and within the law. The information in reference is inaccurate and misrepresents.’

Offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands provide confidentiality for the owners as the names of the company directors and shareholders are not made publicly available.

The Summit family directors though went to greater lengths than practically all the other Bangladesh businessmen to conceal their links to the offshore companies - by appointing ‘nominees’, rather than themselves, as both directors and shareholders of these companies.

In the leaked ICIJ files, the companies Anticorp Ltd and Execorp Ltd were named as the ‘directors’ of Beckingsdale Ltd, Grattanville Ltd and Borneo Powers Ltd, which are three of the offshore companies that the Summit family members set up in 2005. The company Sharecorp was also named as the ‘shareholder’ of all three of the companies.
The Portcullis documents, leaked to the ICIJ, however, show that Jafer Ummeed Khan, at least until 2010, owned these companies although he shared ownership of Grattanville Ltd with Md Faisal Karim Khan and that of Borneo Power Ltd with his niece Ayesha Aziz Khan.

Similar kinds of nominee arrangements existed for two of the other companies which were held by the family members: Transnational Electricity Company Ltd, set up in December 2003 which was owned by Aziz Khan, and Fuji Power and Petroleum Ltd set up in 1998.Each nominee director and shareholder cost $500 and $200 a year.

The only exception to the use of nominee shareholders concerns Euro Hub Investments Ltd, which was set up in January 2002, where the shareholders were directly named as Aziz Khan and his wife Anjuman Aziz Khan. However a nominee director was used for this company.

It remains unclear what were the purposes of the Summit directors’ six offshore companies although a note written by the Portcullis administrators in relation to three of the companies — Borneo Powers, Grattanville and Beckingsdale — suggest that the owners intended that they would only be ‘used as a holding company and will be dormant.’

It is, however, known that Transnational Electricity Company had been used by Summit as part of a consortium which in 2004, together with Summit Power, participated in the second tender bid for the construction and operation of a 450MW power station in Sirajganj.

Documents leaked to the ICIJ show that an e-mail written by one of the directors in May 2005 instructed Portcullis TrustNet, which was presumably acting on behalf of the nominee director, to sign a power of attorney that would authorise Aziz Khan ‘to act’ in the Transnational Electrical Company’s place ‘in all matters’ relating to the Sirajganj project.
Aziz Khan was, however, the real owner of the company: an internal TrustNet e-mail sent in response to the request noted that ‘the attorney appointed [i.e Aziz Khan] is the beneficial owner on records.’

TrustNet was also instructed to arrange the signing of a letter addressed to Bangladesh’s power ministry, stating that the Transnational Electricity Company ‘is prepared to provide the equity as stated in Exhibit III, Table 1 as a minimum amount pursuant to the terms of the RFP.’

The commitment to ‘provide the equity’ as stated in the letter suggests that funds were available in the offshore company.
In addition to the Summit company directors, there are many other Bangladesh businessmen who own or owned offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands.

• Hasan Mahmood Raja, Khandaker Moinul Ahsan (Shamim), Ahmed Ismail Hossain and Akhter Mahmud of the United Group of Companies, in January 2002, became directors of the offshore company Multi-Trade Marketing Ltd which was liquidated sometime before 2010. Attempts to get a comment from Khandaker Moinul Ahsan (the only one of the four currently in Bangladesh were not successful.

• The late Samson H Chowdhury, the founder of the Square Group of Companies, and Dr AMM Khan, a former president of the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries, in June 2003, became directors of the offshore company Fair Trading House Ltd, which sometime before 2010 was liquidated. Six months earlier, Samson and his wife Anita also became directors of Evening Stars Ltd. All three of Chowdhury’s sons were out of the country and attempts to contact them were not successful.

• Azmat Moyeen, the managing director of Momin Tea, and Dilip Kumar Modi, a jute businessman, along with some others, in March 2005, became directors/shareholders of the offshore company Wrightstar PTE Ltd which before 2010 was liquidated. Dilip Kumar denied any involvement in the company. Azmat said, ‘I have no idea what you are talking about. I do business in tea. I have nothing in the British Virgin Islands.’

• Dr Syed Serajul Huq, the chairman of Sea Pearl Lines, in October 2005, along with some other people, became a director/shareholder of the offshore company Sovereign Capital PTE Ltd, which was de-registered before 2010. Serajul Huq said, ‘[The information is] completely wrong. I was not a director there.’

• Md Aminul Haque, Nazim Asadul Haque and Tarique Ekramul Haque of Bangla Trac Ltd, in July 2006, became directors/shareholders of the offshore company Pyramid Rock Ltd. Tareq Haque told New Age that his brother who set up the company was a non-resident Bangladeshi. ‘The company was set up to do cotton trading in Bangladesh but ultimately that did not happen, and it has now been closed down. There is no illegality as no money was taken out of Bangladesh.’

• Captain Sohail Hasan of the ship builder Western Marine, between August 2006 and November 2007, using a Singapore address, became director/shareholder of four offshore companies — Noble Pacific Worldwide Ltd, Titan Alliance Ltd, Surreal Worldwide Ltd and Prominent Shipping PTE Ltd. Sohail did not respond to an e-mail from New Age.

• FM Zubaidul Haque, the chairman of the Mascot Group of Companies, in May 2007, along with his wife Salma, became director/shareholder of the offshore company Spring Shore Incorporated, which ceased to exist sometime before 2010. Zubaidal said, ‘The information is not correct. I am not aware of that company.’

• Mahtabuddin Chowdhury, the managing director of Shetu Corporation, in August 2007, along with his wife Ummeh Rubana became director/shareholder of the offshore company Talavera Worldwide Inc. Mahtabuddin has not responded to an e-mail.

• Iftekharul Alam, chairman and managing director of Spark Ltd and Omnichem Ltd, and his daughter-in-law Fawzia Naaz, the owner of Sitylink, in December 2007, using Singaporean addresses, became directors/shareholders of the offshore company Paume Technology Ltd. Iftekharul said that he needed time to check details of the companies.

• ASM Mohiuddin Monem, the deputy managing director of Abdul Monem Ltd, in June 2008, along with his wife, Asma Monem, became director/shareholder of the offshore company Magnificent Magnitude inc. Mohiuddin accepted that he had set up the company but said that ‘that was a long time back. It was set up to undertake commodity trading. The company is no longer there. There was no money involvement. The company was not activated.’

• Sharif Zahir of the Ananta Group, in February 2009, became the director of the offshore company CPAT (Singapore) Private Ltd. He said that the company was not set up by him but by an international partner company that intended to invest in Bangladesh but it subsequently pulled out. ‘The company was closed down in 2011,’ he said.

Local businessmen?s link to offshore cos revealed

 

[idune]

RATE CUTS IN INT’L INCOMING CALL FOR IGWS

BTRC proposal to cause Tk 1,073cr govt losses

The telecom regulator on Sunday sent a proposal to the telecommunications ministry for lowering the incoming call charge and revenue sharing from international gateway operators which would cause a loss of Tk 1,073 crore in government revenues every year.

Officials of the post and telecommunications ministry said Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission had proposed to lower the international call termination charge to 1.5 cents from the existing 3 cents. They said the BTRC had also proposed to lower the government revenue sharing to 40 per cent from the existing 51.75 per cent.

The BTRC in its proposal admitted that the proposed plan would slash the government revenue to Tk 777 crore from Tk 1,851 crore – the government’s annual income from IGW and ICX operators last year.‘The government will have a revenue shortfall of Tk 1,073 crore which we hope can be managed if the move reduces illegal call termination,’ said the BTRC proposal.

It said the country records around 55 million minutes of international incoming calls daily out of which 35 million minutes are disclosed to regulators.The proposal also said the market turned dull because too many IGW licences had been issued and lowering the rates would make new IGWs sustainable. Only four companies were given licences through an auction when IGW service was introduced in Bangladesh in 2008.

The present Awami League-led government awarded 25 more licences – mostly to people linked to the ruling party.

The regulator had proposed at best 10 more licences, but the government in last year awarded 25 IGW, 23 ICX and 34 IIG licences raising the number of gateway licences to 91.The 25 new IGW licences could hardly increase the revenue, said BTRC officials.

They also said around Tk 900 crore in licence renewal fees from the IGW operators was due but could not be realised because of ‘political influence’.The new IGW licensees have ‘political backing’ and care little about the relevant laws, the officials alleged

They named some companies such as Roots Communications Ltd, First Communications Limited, Vision Tel Limited, Ratul Telecom Limited and Digicon Telecommunications Limited which they said had ‘strong links’ to the ruling party or its allies..

The BTRC officials said the companies were asked several times to explain violation of rules and their not sharing the revenues but nothing happened because of their ‘political connections’.‘When our officers visit the companies concerned for inspection or other purposes, some company officials even behave badly with them...,’ said a senior BTRC official.

He also said that the new IGW licensees got involved in illegal voice over internet protocol business because of vulnerability of the business, depriving the government of revenues. In a recent move, the BTRC directed the IGWs to establish a clearing house in a bid to curb illegal international call termination and unhealthy competition among the service providers.
The BTRC directive was prompted by a recent trend of decreasing international call volume and offering international call rates lower than the prescribed rates, it said.

The BTRC recently awarded 1,000 VoIP licences on ‘political consideration’ although commission officials said the market was able to handle only 300 to 400 new licences.

‘This will again harm the legal VoIP business a great deal and might force us to take such steps as lowering rates to make the business sustainable for the new VoIP licensees ,’ said the official. Asked about the issue, telecom secretary Md Abubaker Siddiqi said the ministry would conduct its own market research before approving the proposal.

‘I have not seen the proposal yet. The parliamentary standing committee on posts and telecom ministry recently asked BTRC to take initiatives for increasing the revenue from international calls,’ he told New Age. ‘We will approve the BTRC proposal if we find it will help increase the revenue,’ he added.

BTRC proposal to cause Tk 1,073cr govt losses

 

[Saiful Islam]

Actually Bangladesh is in lead among all of us

They were awarded most corrupt nation on earth ...

Haha, that's true. If you check the corruption index then you can see Bangladesh is in front of India and Pakistan, not surprising tbh.

 

[idune]

IGW plan reeks of partisan pressure on BTRC

THE proposal that the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission sent on Sunday to the posts and telecommunications ministry, for lowering the incoming call charge and revenue sharing from international gateway operators, looks dicey for more reasons than one. According to a report published in New Age on Tuesday, the commission has proposed that international call termination charge be halved from existing 3 per cent and that the government revenue sharing lowered from 51.75 per cent to 40 per cent.

The BTRC proposal recognises that lowering the call termination charge and government revenue sharing will result in ‘a revenue shortfall of Tk 1,073 crore’, from Tk 1,851 crore earned from international gateway and interconnection exchange operators last year to Tk 777 crore. The commission argues though that the shortfall ‘can be managed if the move reduces illegal call termination.’ The argument does appear empirically well-grounded. As the New Age report points out, of around 55 million minutes of international incoming calls daily, only 35 million are officially accounted for, i.e. not a single penny goes into the public coffers for around 20 million minutes every day. The question is if there is any guarantee that the BTRC move, if approved and acted upon, will reduce illegal call termination. If it doesn’t, the government actually stands to lose the ‘bird in the hand’ for ‘the two in the bush’.

The next question that arises is what has prompted the commission to come with such an unrealistic proposition. One does not have to dig too deep for an answer; the commission itself explains that the lowering the rates would make the new international gateway operators sustainable. It is worth noting that four companies were given licences through auction when international gateway service was introduced in Bangladesh in 2008 and that the Awami League-led government last year awarded 25 more IGW licences, mostly to people linked to the ruling party, although the commission had recommended 10 at most. With 23 interconnection exchange and international internal gateway operators also in the fray, thanks to blatant favouritism and nepotism by the government, the market has inevitably turned dull.

Moreover, as BTRC officials pointed out, the new IGW licences could not increase the revenue since around Tk 900 crore in licence renewal fees could not be realised from the operators because of their ‘political influence’. These operators even ‘behave badly’ with BTRC officers when they go ‘for inspection or other purposes.’ Besides, they got involved in illegal voice over internet protocol business, depriving the government of hefty revenues. Notably, the commission recently awarded 1,000 VoIP licences on ‘political consideration’ although the market could handle only 300-400.

Now, almost sadistically, the government seems to have pressured the commission into coming up with a proposal to further line up the pockets of these IGW operators who reportedly have close links with the ruling party and its allies. The entire episode, although shocking, is, however, hardly surprising; after all, it seems to be typical of the incumbents (Awami League) to intervene in, and interfere with, the affairs of the supposedly independent institutions for their parochial personal and partisan gains. For example, the same has happened with the Anti-Corruption Commission in the Padma multipurpose bridge scam or the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission in case of frequent upward revision of power tariff to accommodate the private rental and quick rental plants.

While the parliamentary standing committee, which asked the commission ‘to take initiatives for increasing the revenue from international calls’ in the first place, needs to step in and torpedo the BTRC proposal. Meanwhile, conscious sections of society need to sustain their protest against the government’s unmistakeable tendency to give precedence to the interest of the few to the interest of the many.

IGW plan reeks of partisan pressure on BTRC

 

[idune]

This is another example of how Awami League looted 13,768 crore taka in matter of one month from Bangladesh development budget.

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June spending spree takes ADP implementation to 10-yr high
Experts question quality of hurried works ahead of election

The implementation rate of the revised annual development programme in the last fiscal year 2012-13 increased to an 10-year high of 96 per cent as the government, keeping an eye on the general election, went into spending spree in June.

The government agencies and departments spent Tk 13,768 crore, or almost one fourth of the revised ADP of Tk 52,366 crore in a hurried implementation drive of different projects in June, the last month of the FY 2012-13. Till May, the implementation rate of revised ADP was only 69 per cent or Tk 36,258 crore.

Economists, however, said there was nothing to be complacent about the record rate of ADP implementation in a single month in a hurried manner ahead of the elections.

‘When they go for hurried spending, it is obvious the quality of works will come into question. Besides, there is room for misuse of public money,’ said Zaid Bakth, research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. He said that the government had a target to spend higher under the ADP as it was an election year.

Former caretaker government’s economic adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said that in paper it looked satisfactory that the government had spent 96 per cent of allocation. ‘But there is question about the real progress in development works as the government has no system to monitor the works physically,’ he said.

‘The government made around 25 per cent progress in June alone. I think the government hurried to spend money ahead of the national election,” Mirza Aziz said.

Officials of IMED said that people linked to the ruling party were engaged in implementing most of the development works. ‘So, in many cases, they had to show higher spending against works to gobble up handsome amount ahead of election,’ said an official, adding that it was a general picture during the last year of any government.

Full report:
New Age | The Outspoken Daily

 

[idune]

Ad hoc recruitments galore in public offices


THE appointment of more than 4,000 nurses by the health ministry in violation of rules and regulations provides yet another pointer to how arbitrary actions, especially in terms of recruitment in different public offices, by the Awami League-led government continue even at the end of its tenure. According to a New Age report on Monday, bypassing the Department of Nursing Service, which has been entrusted since 1981 with the task to appoint, transfer, punish or grant leave of class II and class III nurses, the health ministry recruited 4,100 nurses on an ad hoc basis and gave them postings to different government hospitals by setting up an appointment and scrutiny committee through an office order on July 11.

While the postings have allegedly been given in exchange for Tk 30,000 to Tk 50,000 from each of the persons seeking to get postings according to their preferences, there are many cases in which two or more nurses have been posted against one post. It may be pertinent to mention here that despite the order issued by the health minister to form a committee to investigate the allegations of irregularities, the ministry is yet to comply with the order.

As the incumbents have recently created as many as 5,000 new nursing posts and the nursing service department director has confirmed that they are going to finalise a decision to provide fresh postings to the newly recruited nurses on Sunday, the problem is likely to get resolved soon. However, recruiting a huge number of people on an ad hoc basis is susceptible to corruption and irregularities because merit and competence are often ignored during such a recruitment process.

It can be recalled that the incumbents earlier recruited 5,000 or so physicians bypassing the Public Service Commission responsible for recruiting people in government service. Allegations have it that most of those recruitments were done on the basis of the candidates’ affiliation with the ruling party. Additionally, many of those doctors recruited mainly for serving in rural areas started skipping duties soon after they had been posted to different district hospitals and upazila health centres.

Unfortunately, the government appears to have failed to take lessons from all this as, according to another New Age report on Friday, they have started the process to recruit 1,532 teachers on an ad hoc basis in secondary public schools despite opposition from various quarters. Either way, the incumbents are urged to stop such ad hoc recruitment in public offices for good.

Ad hoc recruitments galore in public offices

 

[eastwatch]

Please write some facts on the crippling corruption also by BNP, BKZ and her two corrupt sons. It was a time when dollar was traded at Taka 67/68 only. When the corrupt BNP leaders started to buy dollars in the open market, value of Taka against dollar started to fall. It went 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73 and finally 74 in a short span of time.

Today, it is not depreciating. Taka has appreciated from 84 to 78. From this we can see dollar is not being purchased in the open market by the AL corruption money. So, I can deduce there is little corruption this time. I wonder when SHW will take 70 suitcases loaded with dollar money to SA to perform Hajj. But, it was done by BKZ.

 

[idune]

Please write some facts on the crippling corruption also by BNP, BKZ and her two corrupt sons. It was a time when dollar was traded at Taka 67/68 only. When the corrupt BNP leaders started to buy dollars in the open market, value of Taka against dollar started to fall. It went 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73 and finally 74 in a short span of time.

Today, it is not depreciating. Taka has appreciated from 84 to 78. From this we can see dollar is not being purchased in the open market by the AL corruption money. So, I can deduce there is little corruption this time. I wonder when SHW will take 70 suitcases loaded with dollar money to SA to perform Hajj. But, it was done by BKZ.

 

[idune]

BTCL giving work to foreign firm without tender

Tuesday, 01 October 2013

DHAKA, SEPT 30: The Bangladesh Telecommuni-cations Company Limited (BTCL) is going to award a work order to a foreign firm without floating any tender, thus ignoring the public procurement rules (PPR).

This will result in possibility of a loss of Tk. 24 crore for the BTCL, sources said. It has been alleged that a section of BTCL higher-ups are trying to give the work order to a Turkey-based firm, Nortel Networks Netas, for installation of the Dhaka-Cox’s Bazar submarine "Backhaul", linking the submarine bandwidth from Cox’s Bazar to Dhaka and upgrading its capacity to 200 GB/s from 40 GB/s for high-speed data transmission.

When contacted, BTCL managing director M Kalimullah said, “The decision has been taken by the company’s board of directors (BOD) and the PPR has not been ignored in this regard.”“There is a provision in the PPR to award work order directly to the company concerned, considering the extension of the ongoing project work without inviting any tender,” he added.
Telecommunications ministry sources said the former BTTB had signed an agreement with a Turkish company, Hazefibale, for installing the link on October 30, 2005, but the BTCL’s 64th board meeting showed that the agreement was signed with the Nortel Netas.

The BTCL had signed an agreement on June 8, 2008, for Tk. 14.50 crore with the Nortel Netus, while the BTTB had signed an agreement with Hazefibal for Tk. 28.5 crore for the project, the sources added.

The BTCL, in its board meeting, showed that the agreements were signed with the same company and the meeting had approved that the Nortel Netus would be responsible for upgrading the link, according to the sources. Most BTCL employees, however, described the BOD decision as a big "forgery".

The sources also said that though the BTCL’s backhaul capacity was 70 GB/s, the capacity was mysteriously shown as 40 GB/s only in the BOD meeting. Six ITCs (International Terrestrial Cables) have already entered the market and the demand of submarine bandwidth is declining day by day, the sources added.

The economic life for the BTCL’s Backhaul link had been calculated up to 10 years in 2006, the sources said, adding, “Eight years have already gone. Only two or three years are remaining. It would have been appropriate for installing the new generation submarine Backhaul link, instead of the current project, through open international tender which would have saved Tk. 24 crore."

When contacted, posts and telecommunications secretary Abu Bakar Siddique said, “There is a direct purchase provision in the ongoing project as per the PPR.

The board will look into the matter if there happens to be any irregularity in giving the work order to any company by the BTCL,” he added.

BTCL giving work to foreign firm without tender

 

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