ACC files corruption case over BTCL's controversial JICA project

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a case against former BTCL official Aminul Hasan and 8 senior officials including the MDs of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited and Teletalk.

The case has been 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, for allegedly depriving the government of a Tk 164.52 crore loan from JICA.

ACC Assistant Director Muhammad Zainal Abedin filed the case as the plaintiff on Tuesday (February 27), said ACC Deputy Director (Public Relations) Aktarul Islam.

The accused are: former BTCL official Aminul Hasan; managing director of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited and former BTCL director-1 Moshiur Rahman; managing director of Teletalk Md Shahab Uddin; former DE-5 of BTCL Md Ataur Rahman; former director Maqsudur Rahman Akand; GM Ashok Kumar Mondal; former MD Mahfuz Uddin Ahmed; and Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited General Manager (Operation and Maintenance) Azam Ali.

According to the statement of the case, the defendants have colluded with each other and misused government power to eliminate the lowest bidder in the tender process of the Telecommunication Network Development (TND) project with the dishonest intention of getting the work done by the contractor of their choice. In doing so, they delayed the process by making crucial changes in pre-qualification evaluation and not following the Procurement Act and JICA guidelines. As a result, the donor organisation JICA lost interest and took back Tk 164.52 crore on May 7, 2015 which was provided at 0.01 percent interest rate. Thus the country was deprived of such a huge loan facility.