The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a case against Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Commissioner Aminul Hasan and 8 senior officials including the MD of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited and Teletalk for depriving the government of a loan of Tk 164 crore 52 lakh due to corruption and irregularities.
On Tuesday (February 27), ACC Assistant Director Muhammad Zainal Abedin filed the case at the ACC District Office Dhaka-1 as the plaintiff. ACC Deputy Director (Public Relations) Aktarul Islam confirmed the matter.
The accused are- Commissioner of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Aminul Hasan, Managing Director of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited and former director of BTCL-1 Moshiur Rahman, Managing Director of Teletalk. Shahab Uddin, former DE-5 of BTCL. Ataur Rahman, former director Maqsudur Rahman Akand, GM Ashok Kumar Mondal, former MD Mahfuz Uddin Ahmad and General Manager (Operation and Maintenance) Azam Ali of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited.
According to the statement of the case, the defendants have colluded with each other and misused government power to exclude the lowest bidder and get the work done by their preferred contractor. In doing so, the defendants have caused undue delay by not following the Procurement Act and JICA guidelines including changing the pre-qualification criteria, fixing the estimate after 2 months of the original tender invitation.
That’s why the donor organization JICA lost interest and took back 164 crore 52 lakh 15 thousand taka at 0.01 percent easy terms interest on May 7, 2015. The country has been deprived of such a huge loan facility and the country has suffered financial losses. The case was filed against the accused under Sections 409, 420, 468, 471, 511, 109 of the Penal Code and Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.
