There are allegations of rampant corruption against a power division project titled - National Power Transmission Network Development (NPTND) project.
The state-owned Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) has undertaken the package - 6 of the project to develop the country's electricity transmission system.
Sources said that the package, adopted for the development of the transmission system in the Chattagram region, has been procured at a higher price than the project proposal.
There are allegations of negligence of the contractor and the appointment of the project director was later cancelled for his involvement proven in a previous corruption case. There are also allegations of irregularities of piling of the towers and wrong planning and line construction. Later that route was canceled.
A consortium led by Japanese company Fujikura is working as a contractor of package-6. The other two members are Korean company LS Cables and another Japanese company, Itochu Corporation.
According to the concerned sources, some corrupt officials of PGCB were allegedly involved with the irregularities. These irregularities have led to complaints against the project contractor in the International Arbitration Court (Singapore).
Although the project has not been fully implemented, those concerned fear that the contractor Fujikura may leave Bangladesh due to the contraction of their business. Meanwhile, LS Cables, one of the members of the consortium, has written to the original contractor, Fujikura, seeking compensation for part of the project being canceled.
The NPTND project was adopted in 2012 to improve the country's power transmission system. In 2013, it was approved by the ECNEC. The project was supposed to be completed by June 2017. The cost of the project is estimated at Tk 2,428.61 crore.
Of this, the government was supposed to pay Tk 378.33 crore and PGCB Tk 280.76 crore. The remaining Tk 1,767.52 crore was pledged by development partner JICA.
Meanwhile, PGCB and the contractor could not implement the project even after extending the time several times. As time went on, the cost increased to Tk 2,516.15 crore. The share of government expenditure in the revised DPP increased to Tk 800.23 crore. On the other hand, the cost of JICA has come down to Tk 1,422.74 crore.
Under the project, construction of 12 out of 13 substations has been completed. Four of the six sub-station bay extensions have been completed. Out of the 220 km long transmission line, more than 30 km transmission lines remain to be completed. In the meantime, the construction work on the 26 km Hathazari-Rampur transmission line has been dropped.
The NPTND project is divided into 10 packages. The tender was invited for Package-6 on March 2, 2015 at a cost of Tk 245 crore, more than two years after the approval of NPTND by ECNEC. A total of 11 companies procured participated. The pre-bid meeting was held on March 31, 2015.
At this time, according to the fifth addition of PGCB, about 18 km long Shikalbaha-Anwara transmission line was also included in the project. On the basis of the new proposal, three companies submitted tenders by August 11, 2015. Of these, Fujikura was selected finally.
After the official opening of the financial proposal of Fujikura Limited on May 3 of that year, it was found that the proposed cost of the Package-6 project was estimated at Tk 570 crore, which is 132 percent more than the amount allocated in the DPP.
Sources said that the PGCB had agreed to implement the project with Fujikura without any review. According to the agreement, the project was supposed to be completed in January 2019. The duration of the project has been extended twice till June 2021.
Despite the time extension, Fujikura got workorder as a contracter, they also supplied material of the project.
It has been found that one of the reasons behind the delay of the project is the negligence to select the route. It is learned that at the initial stage, the project has not been effectively coordinated with various stakeholders, including public and private departments, agencies and companies such as Railways, Navy, Gas Transmission Company, Kafco, CUFL and others.
However, the crop lands that were acquired for the transmission line were not compensated to the farmers or landowners.
In 2018, another revised proposal was made in the project, stating that the overhead section of the Hathazari-Rampur transmission line would be 26 km instead of the previous 24 km and the underground section would now be 2 km instead of the previous 8 km.
The transmission route was fixed to connect Rampur and Agrabad of Chattagram power substations to the national grid. At the meeting of the steering committee of the NPTND project held on July 5 last year, the project director said that the construction of the Hathazari-Rampur 230 kV transmission line was halted due to the objection of ‘Banauja Bhatiari’ of the Bangladesh Navy, considering the security of the Navy.
Meanwhile, a lot of goods have already been purchased for Hathazari-Rampur transmission project. PGCB also paid the bill claimed by the supplier Fujikura. But these equipment and goods have allegedly been lying unused for a long time in the project area.
Where the route of the construction line has not been completed, there are questions about the purchase of goods. Although it is not clear whether the project will be used at all, the concerned officials have traveled abroad on the pretext of inspecting and purchasing these goods.
In November 2017, goods worth around Tk 8.30 crore were brought from Japan for the Hathazari-Rampur section. In April 2018, goods worth Tk 1.89 crore were brought from France by LC. Apart from this, several other purchases have also been made, sources said.
Initially, PGCB officer Mahbub Ahmed became the project director of NPTND. He had earlier served as the project director for the construction of Ishradi-Baghabari-Sirajganj-Bogra and Sylhet-Shahjibazar-Bahmanbaria transmission lines from February to September 2010.
The first allegation of corruption against Mahbub Ahmed was made on September 4, 2010. A case was filed with Gulshan Police Station on September 8 after the investigation proved the allegations to be true. He was dropped from the project.
The investigation report submitted by the higher committee on September 19 said that six of his associates, including Mahbub Ahmed, had embezzled Tk 63 crore from the two projects through check fraud.
The probe committee further said that during Mahbub Ahmed's eight-month tenure as the project head, Tk 6.5 crore was embezzled in two projects. Later, the investigation of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) also found evidence of his fraudulence acts. On October 17, 2018, a chargesheet was filed in the court.
However, the contract appointment of the project director was canceled after he was sent on leave from January 10, 2019 to July 20 of that year.
A total of 65 towers are being installed on the Hathazari-Shikalbaha transmission line under the project. Each tower requires 16-36 piles. The total amount of piling in this line is 2100.
Sources also said that in the work order of the project, each piling was supposed to be 30 meters deep on average, but piling is being done at a depth of 18 to 20 meters. Thus, crores of taka are being embezzled in every piling. The PGCB is following the PIT (Pile Integrity System) method to test the size of the piling to cover up the misconduct by which it is possible to manipulate the actual depth calculation test (digital theft).
However, if the new generation technology PSIT (Parallel Seismic Instrumental Test) method is followed, it is possible to know the actual depth of each piling.
A 100-day plan was adopted at a board meeting held at Fujikura's headquarters on September 14. It said they would close their business within 100 days after completing ongoing projects in various countries around the world due to business losses in the contracting of EPC (Engineering and Design Procurement Construction) business.
Besides, no Japanese from Fujikura came to Bangladesh after leaving Bangladesh at the beginning of the Coronavirus epidemic.
When contacted over mobile phone the project director declined to comment on the matter. He even refused to tell his name and designation. However, it has been known that he is the project manager.
When contacted, project director Sukantha Lal Nag told Bangladesh Post, "I got the responsibility of the project in January last. Almost all the work of the project has already been completed. So I can't say anything about thatw.’
Prodip Kumar Sutradhar was the project director before Sukantha Lal. When contacted, he said, “I’ll not speak without permission of my office.”
This reporter tried to contact over mobile phone with Golam Kibria, Managing Director of PGCB, but failed to reach him.