Each of the boats should measure 12 metres in length, have air-conditioned cabins and be equipped with light machine gun (LMG) posts, global positioning system, radar and other sophisticated equipment to help the navy conduct anti-smuggling operations in the deep sea.

Sources said the boats designed by Valiant company of Portugal are yet to be manufactured. But they do not meet the navy's length requirement and also do not show any LMG post.

The comptroller general of audit objected to this procurement last week, asking the Directorate General Defence Purchase (DGDP) why the navy should purchase the six boats at Tk 14.5 crore when it had purchased the same for Tk 9 crore last year.

The DGDP finance department has asked the naval authorities to justify its decision.

Sources said the navy picked the financial offer of newly formed company Labanu under the influence of a relative of the prime minister's family. It disqualified the proposals of two other companies, including that of Golden Trade that sold the six boats manufactured by FB Design of Italy last year.

The navy was expected to sign the deal on June 15 with Labanu, which represents Portuguese manufacturer company Valiant. However, this has now been delayed due to the clarifications sought by the DGDP.

Labanu was enlisted with the DGDP on February 26. The tender for the boats' purchase was set to be floated on February 25, but the DGDP deferred the schedule in the last minute and rescheduled the tender for March 5.

Sources said 13 companies participated in the tender and the DGDP selected six including Labanu. The DGDP forwarded its selection to the Naval Headquarters, which then forwarded it to the Chittagong Flotilla Commanding Comban.

A committee of the Flotilla Comban, which will use the boats, finally shortlisted three companies--Labanu, Golden Trade and Crescent Enterprise.

Sources alleged that Labanu should have been dropped from the selection at this point as it lacked in technical capacity.

When the naval tender committee forwarded its selection to the DGDP, the defence purchase authorities on April 24 sought 25 clarifications from Labanu and a few from Golden Trade and Crescent Enterprise each.

The clarifications were answered but not all of them were convincing, sources said.

Last month, a high-powered technical committee of Bangladesh Navy finalised the proposal of Labanu, dropping the two others.

This prompted Golden Trade to raise objections and issue a legal notice on the DGDP seeking justice over the procurement.

The notice said the Golden Trade had sold six boats of the same criteria to Bangladesh Navy and those were delivered to Sudan for the navy's UN peacekeeping operation. But in the current tender, the authorities have picked up Labanu's offer for boats manufactured by Valiant although the offer did not include the standard accessories list along with item-wise pricing in violation of the tender specification clause no 16.

In addition, the Valiant boat PI 1200 is not in production range and its performance is not proven. The notice also claimed that Golden Trade's offer is much lower than that of Labanu.

Bangladesh Navy is also procuring two US-manufactured maritime patrol aircraft at a cost of Tk 130 crore. Singapore-based King Air is supplying the aircraft, sources said, adding that another relative of the PM's family is drawing benefits from this procurement.