A parliamentary panel on Thursday recommended legal measures against a former adviser to the military-backed interim government, MA Matin, and eight shipping ministry officials for their alleged involvement in hastily awarding a contract for container handling at Chittagong Port to an obscure company in a fishy manner.
\n\u2018We have suggested that cases be filed against the former adviser and a few other officials who were involved in the shady deal. Administrative\u00a0measures were also suggested against the officials concerned,\u2019 said Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the shipping ministry.
\nThe committee has also suggested departmental action against eight officials including former shipping secretary Motahar Hossain, now a member of the Privatisation Commission, and RU Ahmed, a senior official of the Chittagong Port Authority.
\nThe committee\u2019s chairman said the suggestions will shortly be sent to the ministry with a request to the Anti-Corruption Commission to charge the former adviser and the officials for alleged graft.
\nThe chairman did not disclose names of the officials to be taken to task, saying that they would be made public at the committee\u2019s next meeting.
\nThe committee received a report by a subcommittee which had investigated the alleged corruption by the former shipping adviser, Matin, who was also in charge of an anti-graft taskforce during the two-year rule of military-backed interim regime.
\nThe corruption-busting taskforce detained as many as 200 leading politicians, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and leader of the opposition Khaleda Zia, for their alleged corruption.
\nMatin, who had talked tall against corruption during the interim administration\u2019s regime, was accused by the parliamentary committee of hastily awarding a deal to a little known company for container handling at Chittagong Port on January 6, the day an elected government took office.
\nHe was also accused of unilaterally increasing the age ceiling of the pilots at the Chittagong Port from 57 to 60 without consulting the establishment and the finance ministries.
\nA four-member parliamentary subcommittee was assigned on June 15 to investigate the allegations against the retired Major General who was also in charge of the ministries of home affairs and liberation war affairs during the interim government\u2019s regime.
\nThe subcommittee, headed by Awami League lawmaker Shah Alam, in its report submitted to the main committee on Thursday said that the adviser and a few top officials of the shipping ministry were involved in awarding the container handling deal to Ishaque Brothers in violation of the rules.
\nThe deal caused an estimated loss of about Tk 12 crore to the public exchequer, said a member of the subcommittee.
\nHe said that the deal could be completed so hastily because the adviser and ministry\u2019s senior officials worked for it even during the weekly holidays. The bidding documents were transported from and to Dhaka by air instead of normal transport.
\nThe final nod from the shipping adviser came on January 6, when the members of the Awami League-led alliance Cabinet were taking oath to form the new government.
\nThe then shipping secretary, Motahar Hossain, who was summoned before the subcommittee on July 26, admitted that the process for awarding the container handling deal was seriously flawed. Another junior officer of the ministry said that he was forced to sign the document.
\n\u2018As the adviser interfered with the tender process and caused loss of public money, we have suggested legal action against him,\u2019 said the committee\u2019s chairman, adding that the tender was not invited properly in line with the government\u2019s rules and the port authority did not hold any meeting of its board before awarding the contract.
\nWhen he was asked why the adviser\u2019s version of the events was not taken into consideration, Noor-e-Alam Chowdhury said that Matin would get the chance for defending himself in the court once the case is filed.
\n\u2018The court will determine whether he was wrong or right. The evidence says he did the wrong thing, and he has to prove that he didn\u2019t in the court,\u2019 he said.
\nMatin was the first among three advisers to the interim administration to be accused of graft. Former public works adviser Mainul Hossein and former local government adviser Anwarul Iqbal have also been accused of corruption by the concerned parliamentary watchdogs.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of\u00a0NewAgebd<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A parliamentary panel on Thursday recommended legal measures against a former adviser to the military-backed interim government, MA Matin, and eight shipping ministry officials for their alleged involvement in hastily awarding a contract for container handling at Chittagong Port to an obscure company in a fishy manner. \u2018We have suggested that cases be filed against … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n