1770 million corruption in Matarbari! – Bangladesh Diplomat

Cox's Bazar's Matarbari 1200 MW ultra super critical power project, one of the coal-based power projects in the country, has been involved in corruption. During the period of the Awami League government, which was ousted in the mass movement, there have been cases of corruption and irregularities in this power plant of the Government Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited (CPGCBL) so far, about 154 million US dollars or 1 thousand 770 crore taka. In the daily search of Bangladesh, all the evidences and documents of these corruption activities have come to hand. It shows that illegal payment of variation of Tk 106 crore 34 lakh 70 thousand in 16 works, Tk 68 crore in the name of sand filling in project township area, Tk 257 crore 77 lakh by construction of concrete road instead of bitumen or pitch road, CPGCBL's own scrap through sale without auction 53 Crores, 12 Crores in the name of Institutional Development, 26 Crores by sale of leftover material of the project contractor, besides 26 Crores by changing the country of origin of various valuable goods and by influencing the supply of low quality goods to the project. In the meantime, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has found embezzlement and looting of 1.5 billion taka against six top officials including managing director of the power plant – MD Abul Kalam Azad for various irregularities and corruption in the construction of Matarbari coal-based power plant. For a long time, there are allegations of stealing billions of rupees in the name of syndicated tender and commission trade in Matarbari coal-based power project and passing goods of various companies. Several officials and employees of the organization have recently written to the ACC with information about the specific complaint. A copy of the complaint was also reportedly sent to the Prime Minister's office. In view of this, a letter was sent from the ACC head office to the Cox's Bazar integrated district office on July 9, and on July 15, a two-member investigation committee headed by Subel Ahmed, deputy director of the Cox's Bazar district office, was formed and after completing the investigation, a report has been ordered to be submitted.

According to the letter and ACC sources, Matarbari Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh Limited (CPGCBL) MD Abul Kalam Azad, Executive Director (Finance) Mohammad Shaheed Ullya, Acting Chief Engineer Mohammad Moniruzzaman, Executive Engineer (Design) Md. Kamrul Islam, Assistant Security Officer Alfaz Uddin and DGM (Deputation) Matiur Rahman have been accused of being involved in these corruptions. The names of these six officials have come up in the data found in Bangladesh Daily's search.

CPGCBL MD Abul Kalam Azad did not pick up several calls on his mobile yesterday to inquire about the corruption. However, when the Executive Director (Finance) of Matarbari, accused of corruption, Mohammad Shaheed Ullya was contacted over the phone, he told Bangladesh Pratidin yesterday, 'There is nothing to comment on this matter. We have no chance to do anything here. Here the money comes through Japan. You have nothing to say about this. Those who have complained about this will understand. They complained, let them investigate. When asked whether he accepts the responsibility of this corruption, he got angry and said, 'If you want to raise this matter in your newspaper, raise it. No such incident happened. Now if you want to complain, you do.'
By reviewing the various data received by Bangladesh Daily, it can be seen that variation orders worth 140 million dollars or 1,633,470,000 taka were given illegally without approval in the Matarbari power project. In this project, all the funds of physical contingency are used for other purposes through variations without permission. However, money is allocated for this work only in case of natural calamities like disaster or epidemic, in that case, if this allocation is to be spent in other sectors, permission must be obtained from the Ministry of Planning. So far 16 cost adjustments or variations have been given in the Matarbari project. The total value of which is 140 million dollars. Out of these 5 boards are approved and the remaining 11 have no approval. As per rules the contractor can give variations up to certain limits. Matarbari project has been awarded by CPGCBL board. But a large number of variations are given without board approval. As the Board is the contractor, the Project Manager cannot in any way issue a variation order. But still gave. Apart from this, all the money of physical contingency has been spent on 15 cost adjustments or variations, which are completely illegal. Apart from this, funds from other sectors of the Development Project Proposal (DPP) have been transferred to physical contingency without permission and variation orders have been taken for these funds. It has been alleged that MD of the project Abul Kalam Azad and Executive Director (Finance) Mohammad Shahid Ullya are involved in this work.

According to the investigation, the sand filling work in the township area of ​​the project could have been done at 14 crore rupees but the money was embezzled in the name of spending 68 crore rupees at a cost of almost 6 times more. It is known that local contractors were appointed to fill sand in Matarbari township area. 13 km from the contractor project. He used to collect sand from far away and filled it at the rate of Tk 315/cubic meter. The contract was canceled due to failure to complete the work on time. Now, instead of the local contractor, the foreign contractor of the Matarbari project is taking the initiative to fill the sand. And now the foreign contractor has used sand for the project. In that case, only 1 km of the foreign contractor. Transporting sand from a distance will cost. But here it is estimated at 925 Tk/cubic meter. Thus, 8.5 million cubic meters of sand has been estimated at 82 crore rupees. However, according to the latest rate schedule, the work can be easily done for 14 crore taka by tendering. And if re-tendered, the contractor only needs to transport sand, so the work can be completed easily. Apart from this, filling of sand through local contractor could be billed in local currency (Taka) allocated to DPP. Having to pay bills in dollars for working illegally through foreigners. This is a clear violation of DPP. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) asked for a variation order for the work but no variation order was approved. Board may approve variation order. The work is being done illegally without taking the variation on board. This has resulted in corruption, looting and wastage of state resources worth 68 crore rupees. That too in foreign currency.

According to the project agreement bitumen or pitch roads are to be constructed in the project area. An additional Tk 170 crore variation is given to build concrete roads instead of bitumen or pitch roads only for corruption. It did not follow DPP or PPR policy. The project consultant (MJVC) suggested that concreting all the roads would cost between $14 and $16 million. which is expensive. For this reason, only some roads (power plant, coal yard) should be made with concrete and all the remaining roads (espond, service road and all others) should be made with bitumen or pitch. It would have cost an additional $3 to $4 million. But all roads are being concreted for dishonest purpose and additional 21.6 million dollars or 257 crore 77 lakh taka gives illegal variation. The permission of the board or the ministry was not taken for this work either.

CPGCBL owns all the scrap/unused parts of goods brought from abroad by the project contractor (whose tax has been paid by CPGCBL) as per the contract. Accordingly CPGCBL sold scrap worth around Rs 9 crore through auction. Later the same scrap from the same place is called contractor's scrap and the contractor is said to be selling scrap. So CPGCBL did not auction the scrap then. But many truckloads and boatloads of scrap go out of projects every day. CPGCBL provides the gatepass to take out the goods. In fact, the companies that used to buy scrap through auctions are still buying scrap. But the value of the scrap is being taken by the officials involved later on in CPGCBL. In this way, 53 crore rupees were embezzled in the last few months. Now again the same scrap from this same place is being sold through auction. And in the intervening year, 53 crores worth of scrap has been sold without auction.

Recruitment of Institutional Development Consultants is placed with JICA at MOD of CPGCBL Institutional Development. As CPGCBL is a new institution, the appointment of a consultant for institutional development was kept to determine how its organogram, setup of Matarbari power plant, administrative level etc. would be. But come 2022 there was no need for it. Because the organogram of CPGCBL, setup of Matarbari power plant, administrative level etc. have been done and approved from the ministry. But the officials involved took the initiative to hire an Institutional Development Consultant after all these years for corruption and wrote to JICA in this regard. They ordered the variation and gave the job to Tepsco. The cost of the work is about 8.12 crores and about 12 crores including VAT and taxes. Usually such work includes detailed surveys, seminars, reports, local/abroad training, long-term supervision. But here only a report is given. The scope of their work does not cost more than 20 lakh rupees. Apart from this the work is offered in variations provided that the firm has no prior experience of such work. Officials involved said that JICA has asked to do this work. But JICA did not do that, instead the project director started this work by writing a letter to JICA on his own initiative. So far the final report of this work has not been completed or approved. 40 percent of the work is done, but 90 percent of the bill is paid. In other words, the contract of 12 crore rupees for the appointment of institutional development consultant has been made only for the purpose of corruption. The contract with the contractor mentions the country from which all the important goods/machines will come. But the country of origin of some goods has been changed. Goods are allowed to be supplied from China, Thailand, Indonesia or India instead of G-8 countries. It brings low quality goods/machinery. All this was done in the absence of the board without any permission. Through this, those involved have become owners of huge amounts of money. In the Matarbari project, the foreign contractor does the main work of the project. Other works of the project (earth filling, roads, various buildings and various other works) are done by indigenous sub-contractors. On this occasion, project MD Abul Kalam and Acting Chief Engineer Mohammad Moniruzzaman pressured foreign contractors Tashiba/IHI/POSCO to make their own people work as sub-contractors in exchange of huge sums of money. Through this, the officials involved have earned billions of rupees illegally.

In the Matarbari project, the foreign contractor Hyundai E and C has done key work in the marine protection and land protection (DMM) of the project. They left Matarbari as their work was done. Its Matarbari project constructed about 15 large steel structure buildings (totaling about 78,500 square feet) for housing and offices for 120 foreigners. Salvage value of these buildings is about 15 crore rupees. According to the unwritten rules of all projects including power plants of the country, the temporary construction of the foreign contractor is received by the owner/organization at the end of the project. These facilities are to be acquired by CPGCBL after the exit of Hyundai E and C. Similarly CPGCBL goods held by POSCO were sold as POSCO goods for Rs 11 crore out of the scrap project. These goods were sold by project managing director Abul Kalam Azad and chief engineer Mohammad Moniruzzaman. Moniruzzaman stayed at Matarbari and supervised the removal of all scraps and other materials out of the project and called the Matarbari officials of Abul Kalam Azad Project and gave permission and instructions to take the materials out of the project.