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3 dead officials blamed for graft

Tardy probe finds overspending ofTk 131cr in a power project

Rejaul Karim Byron
An unduly delayed government investigation pointed finger at three deceased power officials, including a former chairman of Power Development Board, for overspending Tk 131 crore in a power sector rehabilitation project violating rules and without proper approval.
The probe that took five years to complete blames ex-PDB chairman and secretary Quamrul Islam Siddique, PDB exproject director Mostafa Kamal Hossain and former assistant chief of the Power Division of power ministry Khaleda Latif for the overspending.
The investigation report of the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED) was placed before the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) meetinglast month.
The report also showed that the implementation of the project took twice the time approved. The government even spent about five years to finalise the probe report.
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The Rehabilitation, Renovation and Augmentation of Grid System (RRAGS) Phase-2 project for the duration of 1999 to 2003 was initially supposed to spend Tk 524 crore, which was approved as an estimated expenditure. The project ended up spend-ingTk 822 crore and on top of that it completed in June, 2007.
Tk 298 crore was overspent but the IMED report said Tk 131.59 crore was additionally spent on new and additional work that did not follow the economic planning disciplines and financial policies.
According to the original plan, only nine vehicles were to be purchased but 41 vehicles were bought for the project. A car, two 4x4 vehicles, two pick-up trucks and four motorcycles were approved for purchase with Tk 68 lakh. However, a car, 15 4x4 vehicles and 26 pick-up trucks were bought at a cost of Tk 13.68 crore. These were purchased under Chinese suppliers credit.
Apart from buying these vehicles, irregular and additional expenditure include Tk 22.27 crore for equipment of power line or sub station, Tk 50 crore for setting up lines or sub-station and about Tk 12 crore for non-
residential buildings and soil testing.
As the project failed to complete on time, PDB, the implementing agency of the project, sent the project to be revised in December 2003. The revised project was approved in the Ecnec meeting of May 31,2005, 559 days later.
Sources alleged that the delay in approving the revised project resulted in the cost going up. About 93 percent of the additional expenditure occurred during this 559 days.
Approving the revised project in 2005, Ecnec formed an enquiry committee to probe the excess expenditure. The committee on May 17. 2007 placed the report before another Ecnec meeting.
The committee in the report asked for the three officials to be warned but the then chief adviser wanted to know whether sterner actions could be taken against them.
On March 19, 2009 the committee gave a fresh report to the planning minister but two members of the committee did not sign the report. As a result, the planning minister reconstituted the committee and the report was submitted to the Ecnec meeting.