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What was supposed to incite an exemplary punishment has now turned into a matter of joke and amusement. It is indeed a great achievement from the perpetrator's side; instead of facing any kind of penalty or accountability, they have managed to turn the criminal act into a matter of amusement
It's a saddening fact that despite spending 53 years as free land, Bangladesh still needs to import nuts, bolts, and washers -- we are unable to produce them locally. So, naturally, the question comes; what price are we paying?
Recently, The Daily Star's journalist Mohammad Suman reported on this issue. His report is one of the thousands of examples of the level of corruption, anomalies, and criminal acts that have been marring the nation for long.
One kilogramme of nuts and bolts cost two dollars and 18 cents. State-run Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Ltd (PGCBL) imported 68 kilogrammes of tower bolts, nuts and washers from India.
The actual price of the consignment should have been US $148 (Tk 16,280), which we bought for a whopping $2,39,695 or Tk 2.63 crore, which is 1,619 times the contract value. Chinese firm TBEA Co Ltd, contractor of Extension and Empowerment of Eastern Grid Network project under PGCBL, imported the items from Skipper Limited of India.
Customs officials at the Mongla port raised questions regarding the abnormally high import cost of the nuts and bolts. Extra efforts from PGCBL for releasing the goods caught our eye. We came across some incoherent, untrue, and conflicting statements from them.
Replying to the letter from the customs authority, PGCBL's project director and chief engineer Md Shahadat Hossain explained, "Previously, while importing goods, the Indian organization sent extra products. Now they have sent less, and the price has been adjusted accordingly. The average import price is still within the limit of the purchase agreement."
In this case, not only did they provide an extremely lame logic, but they also failed to support it with copies of the LC or invoice records. They tried really hard to get the products released.
They even appointed a C&F agent to clear the goods.
Eventually, thanks to the alertness of customs, they failed to release the goods and stated "The products were imported by mistake. It is a human error."
Then they also mentioned that the high price was a result of "carelessness" on the part of the Indian company.
Having failed to have the items released in various ways, the power supplier is now lobbying to send them back (re-export)
If we analyse the information provided within the report from a holistic point of view, we can clearly see that the unusually high import price is a conscious and combined effort from PGCBL and the Chinese contractor. Their malicious intent is crystal clear.
It should be noted here that the same reporter did a report titled "Matarbari Power Plant: Tk 93 lakh for two pipe cutters!", which was published on April 1 in The Daily Star.
In that report, he wrote that two pipe cutters worth Tk 14,500 were bought at Tk 93 lakh.
Additionally, two hammers worth Tk 1,668 were procured for 1 lakh 82 thousand taka. In that case, too, some officials from the Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited (CPGCBL) gave laughably lame logic to support the price points.
1. Will the perpetrators from PGBCL who orchestrated the import of nuts and bolts at 1,619 times higher prices be identified, and will the information be made public?
2. Shall we try to find out why a responsible official like Shahadat Hossain tried justifying the excessively high prices through illogical and laughable logic?
3. Only a handful of such procurement incidents make the news. How many hundreds, or thousands stay unpublished?
4. Will there be any investigation at all?
5. We are yet to hear about any investigation into the pipe cutter and hammer procuring fiasco in Matarbari power plant. We also didn't hear about any involved officials being held accountable or receiving punishment.
Even after all this, will you still remain hopeful that there will be an investigation into importing nuts and bolts at such an exorbitant price and the perpetrators will be identified and duly punished?
bridge lead screw (Translated from Bangla by Mohammed Ishtiaque Khan )
Bangladesh Bank Spokesperson Majbaul Haque said that the loan installment approved today will be added to the reserve within the next day or two.