Two-man team to probe graft charges against Gen Matin

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is to appoint a two-member team within a week to investigate the allegations of corruption brought by a JS body against former shipping adviser Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin and eight others in the Tk 9-crore container handling deal for Chittagong Port.
“We received the findings of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the shipping ministry. They urged us to take legal actions against him and others,” ACC chairman Ghulam Rahman told The Independent yesterday at his office.
“We will appoint a team of two inquiry officers (IOs) within a week to inquire into the alleged irregularities in the container handling deal on the Chittagong Port by former shipping adviser Maj Gen Matin and eight others,” the ACC chief said, adding after completing the inquiry, “we will take necessary action.”
On September 1, the shipping ministry had sent parliamentary findings coupled with relevant documents to the ACC for taking legal action against adviser Matin on charge of irregularities in awarding the container handling work to a ‘novice company’ Esack Brothers. Matin is accused of signing the deal in haste and awarding the contract to the company on his last day in office on January 6 this year. 
The parliamentary standing committee on shipping on August 30 suggested filing a corruption case by ACC against General Matin and eight others in this regard.
If ACC goes ahead with the case, Matin will be the first adviser of the 2007-2008 army-backed caretaker government to face corruption charges after the Awami League government took office.
 Besides Matin, the other accused officials are Sheikh AK Motahar Hossain (former shipping secretary, now working as a member of the privatisation commission), Abdul Matin (former joint-secretary to shipping ministry, now posted in the industries ministry), Sharif Md Masud (former senior assistant secretary, now posted as senior assistant secretary at agriculture ministry), Commodore R U Ahmed (chairman of Chittagong Port Authority), Md Harun Mia (member finance of CPA), Ehsanul Kabir (director transport of CPA) and Golam Sarwar of CPA.
The JS committee on shipping later formed a four-member sub-committee headed by Mohammad Shah Alam MP on May 27 to investigate the allegations against Matin, who was also home adviser and chief of the corruption-busting national committee formed by the caretaker government of Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed.
AL lawmakers Shamsul Haq and Nazrul Islam Babu and BNP MP Mostofa Kamal Pasha were the other members of the all-party parliamentary probe body.
The probe committee later recommended to the shipping ministry to refer the matter to ACC for filing a case against Matin and other accused officials.
According to chairman of the standing committee Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury, the committee suggested taking departmental actions against the public servants involved in the deal. The committee proposed to shipping ministry to recover the siphoned money (Tk 8 crore) from them and to cancel the contract with Esack Brothers.
The sub-committee claimed to have found that Matin allegedly arranged a board meeting of the CPA in the afternoon of Jan 5 to evaluate the tender committee’s report. The CPA moved the file to award the contract within 24 hours to Esack Brothers after the meeting and couriered it to Dhaka by air.
The file was accepted on Jan 6 morning, and the same was sent to the port authority for necessary actions after the adviser had signed it.
The file reached Chittagong in the afternoon of Jan 6 and the port authorities awarded the work to Esack Brothers early next morning when the Awami League-led new government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was taking oath at Bangabhaban. 
 
Courtesy of The Independent