Govt paying Oracle, accused of taking local data abroad, taking loans

Bangladesh Data Center Company Limited (BDCCL), accused of allowing state-owned data and documents to be taken abroad through Oracle, has now been forced to pay Oracle’s bills by taking bank loans.

The state-owned company has fallen into such a crisis that it sees no immediate way out. Most recently, BDCCL borrowed Tk 2 crore from Exim Bank to pay Oracle and other outstanding bills.

At present, the National Data Center Company is in such dire financial straits that its operations are on the verge of being halted.

BDCCL said that Exim Bank loan was taken urgently to pay Oracle and other pending bills. An FDR (fixed deposit) was nearing maturity, but instead of breaking it, they borrowed against it.

Mohammad Taufiq Al Mahmud, current Managing Director of BDCCL and a Joint Secretary, said “We are paying off liabilities from the past. The deal with the international company was signed without prioritizing the country’s interest. That agreement runs until April 2027.”

He added, “In the new contracts we are signing, national interests are being prioritized, and we are ensuring that data sovereignty will be fully protected.”

How BDCCL Landed in This Crisis
On 12 December 2021, BDCCL signed a deal under the direct purchase method to buy Oracle’s Dedicated Region Cloud Customer (DRCC) services.

According to BDCCL and government policymakers, that deal did not prioritize the national interest. Following the deal, the data and records management of 34,000 government offices were hosted by Oracle. Oracle then moved that data to Singapore.

Later, when Oracle installed the DRCC at the Hi-Tech Park data center, BDCCL had to pay for the DRCC services as well as for the data stored in Singapore.

As a result, BDCCL’s outstanding bills to the a2i program now stand at nearly Tk 280 crore.

a2i officials said the bills raised by BDCCL for Oracle services are 30 times higher than market rates. They also admitted they are unable to pay these bills due to budget shortages.

Managing Director Taufiq Al Mahmud said “a2i owes us huge amounts of money but has not been paying. Meanwhile, every month we must cover staff salaries, allowances, bills, and maintenance expenses, which require a large sum.”

He acknowledged that this unpaid revenue is one of the major reasons behind BDCCL’s current crisis.

Still, he claimed the company is taking measures and strategies to overcome the challenges and move forward successfully.

Move to Secure Tk 300cr Loan
To keep operations running amid this severe financial crisis, BDCCL has taken an initiative to secure an interest-free loan of Tk 300 crore from the Finance Division.

The Finance Division noted that paying outstanding bills from the ministry’s operational budget or ongoing development project funds would violate fiscal discipline. Instead, from FY 2021–22 onward, provisions for paying such dues could be included in a2i’s “Data Storage Expenditure” budget line (with an extension of the project period, if necessary).

If BDCCL obtains this loan, it must repay it once the dues are cleared by a2i.

For this purpose, BDCCL has decided to expedite the signing of pending contracts with a2i and has applied for the loan through the ICT Division.

Oracle Shielded from Accountability?
Despite thousands of government offices’ data and records being transferred abroad, there has been no legal action or accountability to date against Oracle or those responsible.

Since May 2022, almost all government data and documents had been shifted—at least nominally under BDCCL’s name—to Oracle’s Singapore-based OCI. On 30 May 2024, BDCCL’s then-Managing Director, Md. Ataur Rahman Khan, wrote to the a2i project director stating that the OCI-stored data in Singapore would now be brought back to Oracle’s DRCC in Bangladesh. However, the massive data migration stretched throughout 2024.

BDCCL Chairman and ICT Secretary Shish Hayder Chowdhury said an investigation is underway into how this happened and who was involved.

“Whoever compromised the country’s data sovereignty, no matter how powerful, will be held accountable under the law,” he said.

“We are establishing good governance. There will be no scope for irregularities or corruption. Effective steps are being taken to pull the National Data Center back from its fragile state,” he added.