BARAPUKURIA COAL MINE SCAM
ACC sues Khaleda, 15 others
Saifur, Bhuiyan, Nizami among the accused
Courtesy New Age 27/2/08 Moneruzzaman Mission
Former prime minister Khaleda Zia and 15 others, including 10 of her former cabinet colleagues, were sued on Tuesday for allegedly embezzling Tk 158.71 crore by awarding the production, operation and maintenance contracts for Barapukuria coal mine to the highest bidder.
Along with Khaleda, former ministers Saifur Rahman, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, Matiur Rahman Nizami, M Shamsul Islam, MK Anwar, Aminul Haque, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and AKM Mosharraf Hossain were accused in the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission with Shahbagh police station.
Nazrul Islam, former energy secretary, SR Osmani, ex-chairman of Petrobangla and now the chairman of BSCIC, Moinul Ahsan, former director of Petrobangla, Md Sirajul Islam, ex-managing director (additional charge) of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited, and Moazzem Hossain, Hosaf Group chairman, were also accused in the case.
The 16 were accused of awarding the Tk 493.79 crore contract for Barapukuria mining in 2005 to Chinese CMC Consortium, which was the highest bidder, without inviting re-tender. A Tk 335.08 crore agreement signed with the lowest bidder, Sangdon Ludi Consortium was scrapped following the company’s demand for upward revision in the project cost.
This is the third case filed so far against Khaleda, also the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, by the commission. The ACC filed the first case against Khaleda on September 2, 2007 along with 12 others, including her youngest son Arafat Rahman, on charge of awarding a contract to an ‘incompetent’ firm – Global Agro Trade Company – to handle containers at the Inland Container Depot in Dhaka and at
The commission filed the second case on December 9, 2007 accusing Khaleda and four others of causing Tk 10,000 crore loss to the state exchequer by signing contracts with Canadian company, Niko Resources.
This was, however, for the first time that Khaleda’s cabinet colleagues Saifur Rahman, Mannan Bhuiyan, Shamsul Islam, MK Anwar, Nizami and Mujahid were sued in a graft case by the commission.
According to the first information report, Khaleda, her colleagues, who were the members of the purchase committee, and others embezzled Tk 158,71,26342.22 by abusing power and thus causing the loss to the state exchequer, which was punishable under sections 409/406/109/419/420 of the penal code and section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947.
Although the difference between the lowest and highest bids was Tk 158 crore, she [Khaleda] directly assisted in the embezzlement by approving the recommendations of the purchase committee without accepting the Petrobangla proposal for re-tender, said the FIR, filed by ACC assistant director Shamsul Alam.
The purchase committee approved the selection of CMC Consortium although there was ‘visible inconsistency’ in the proposal of the energy and mineral resources division and the purchase committee did not seek any explanation from the division, the FIR mentioned.
It said that three companies had submitted bids for the contract for extracting coal from Barapukuria for 71 months and the tender evaluation committee concluded that Sangdon Ludi was the lowest bidder, Suju Coal Mining Group Consortium second lowest and CMC was the highest bidder.
Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited and Sangdon Ludi signed the contract on April 24, 2004 after the then prime minister approved the selection of Sangdon as per the recommendation of the purchase committee. Sangdon, however, demanded an upward revision in the project cost without submitting bank and performance guarantee.
‘Procrastination started as the energy division asked Petrobangla to examine the matters of Sangdon although there was no scope to give any legal benefit outside the agreement after signing it’, said the FIR.
The BCMCL board made the decision to cancel the agreement on August 12, 2004 and asked CMC to inform whether it was ready to sign the agreement with the previous offer and conditions quoted by Sangdon.
After CMC refused to sign the agreement and proposed a negotiation, the then Petrobangla chairman SR Osmani sought approval from the energy division for re-tender, said the FIR. ‘But the ministry ignored the re-tender proposal on the pretext of time constraints, without showing any logical reason.’
According to the FIR, the division called a meeting on November 20, 2004 to discuss the Barapukuria issue, where Osmani spoke in favour of signing agreement with CMC backing away from his earlier position favouring re-tender. Energy secretary Nazrul Islam also gave opinion against re-tender.
As per the directives of the state minister for energy, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, Petrobangla director Moinul Ahsan and BCMCL managing director Sirajul Islam prepared the working-paper recommending that the CMC should be given the contract after cancelling the deal with Sangdon without going for re-tender, said the FIR.
The energy division on January 30, 2005 placed a proposal before the purchase committee, headed by the then finance minister, M Saifur Rahman, for awarding the Barapukuria contract to CMC.
According to the FIR, the division proposal to the purchase committee said that Petrobangla had recommended re-tender and CMC was the second lowest bidder as the previous second lowest bidder Suju Coal Mining did not submit ‘bid validity’ and ‘bid bond’ during the tender evaluation. The division told the purchase committee that CMC had appointed Suju as contractor for operating ‘coal face and road header’.
‘The purchase committee did not take into consideration, nor even discussed, the Petrobangla proposal for re-tender although there was a gap of Tk 158 crore in the offers of Sangdon and CMC. The re-tender issue was not discussed giving the reason of time constraints’, the FIR continued.
‘There was enough time for re-tender as the second contract for Barapukuria was signed [with CMC] 14 months after the first contract.’
The FIR said that the then prime minister, Khaleda Zia was the minister-in-charge of the energy and mineral resources division. ‘Any decision of the ministry was supposed to be in her knowledge. She was supposed to know why Sangdon was wasting time by not executing the contract. In the minutes of the purchase committee [presented to Khaleda] it was mentioned that the committee had recommended CMC without re-tender.’
About Hosaf’s Moazzem Hossain, the FIR said that he was the only representative of the lowest bidder, Sangdon, and highest bidder, CMC. ‘Although Suju’s tender was rejected as it did not renew the bid bond, Suju was unexpectedly shown as an associate when CMC signed the contract with BCMCL. The three Chinese companies worked as complementary to each other with the connivance of Moazzem.’
The FIR said an official of the ACC would investigate the case and legal measures would be taken against persons not mentioned in the FIR but found involved in the scam.
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