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New probe proves DFP graft

Rezaul Karim
A fresh inquiry has unearthed irregularities in the purchase of audio equipment worth Tk 23 crore at the Department of Films and Publications (DFP) and accused its director general (DG) of sealing a raw deal for the department.
The six-member committee headed by Mizanur Rahman Majumder, joint secretary (development) of the Ministry of Information, also points an accusing finger at three other top DFP officials.
Officials at the information
ministry said this time the government is finalising the process to either terminate DG Syed Mahbubur Rahman or force him to go into retirement. The DG was previously charged with corruption and two separate inquiries found the charges against him were correctlybased.
Under the project with an inflated cost of Tk 118 crore to expand the DFP building and film and laboratories facilities, which was approved back in 2001, the DFP was to install high tech digital Dolby (noise reduction) audio technology in its theatre. The
equipment purchase at Tk 23 crore was approved.
But the DFP never had any theatre suitable for Dolby systems, the inquiry report says.
The equipment supplier delayed supply by a year and the DFP received the equipment on December 24 and 26 in 2002. However, no step has been taken since then for installation, testing, commissioning and on-site training, adds the inquiry report.
Top DFP officials, in the meantime, took steps to illegally pay the supplier 80 percent (or Tk 1.67 crore) of non-equipment related price. The DG and the project director even made pre-shipment visit to Switzerland and indulged in irregularities.
The probe committee found that the audio equipment purchase project was too ambitious and that the DFP never had the necessary infrastructure and skilled manpower to own and operate such gadgets. Besides, the supplying company was guilty of delaying the project by a year and failing to provide the DFP with a licence to use the audio noise reduction Dolby technology.
The supplier also did not provide the Dolby digital camera processor and six headphones, hampering the installation of the audio equipment, the probe reveals. During their pre-shipment inspection visit to Switzerland, neither the DG nor the project director made any note of the suppliers' failure to provide Dolby equipment, the committee said.
The inquiry committee held the DG responsible for the irregularities along with Director (Film) Sardar Aminul Islam, Project Director BM Salahuddin and another official Shahid Abdullah.
The enquiry committee has held Salahuddin responsible for the faulty project design and not keeping the provision of skilled
manpower in it. The Dolby sound system was supposed to be installed at a theatre that never existed in his project design. And even if a new theatre were to be built, the Swiss Dolby authorities, according to the deal, would still have visited the DFP to examine whether the theatre was suitable for such installation and whether the licence would be issued.
In that event, the DFP would have borne the cost of the trip of the Dolby officials and pay fees to the Dolby authorities for screening a film.
The inquiry committee notes that the project was unnecessarily expensive for a poor country like Bangladesh.
DG of DFP Syed Mahbubur Rahman, when contacted, said that there was no corruption or irregularities in the purchase of the equipment of the project. "I see nothing to be inquired into because we have followed all proceduralmatters properly."
He claimed that 'a section of people' was deliberately spreading lies against him and his organisation.