Their action has resulted in the cancellation of the bidding and re-tendering of the project, which is going to delay by at least three to six months Bangladesh's hooking up to the global information superhighway, scheduled for this September, the sources added.

In a top-secret letter on April 10, the Cabinet Division conveyed the PM's order to the minister and the secretary of the telecommunications ministry, asking them to inform the Cabinet Purchase Committee by May 15 about the actions taken against the technical evaluation committee (TEC) members of the state-run telecoms operator BTTB.

BTTB Chairman Nurul Islam heads the TEC whose other members are BTTB board members -- Fazlul Haque, Mesbahuddin Ahmed and Jamil Osman -- submarine cable Project Director Monwar Hossain, and Lt Col Abdul Khaleque of army and Squadron Leader M Shaukat Ali of air force.

In the letter, a copy of which The Daily Star has obtained, the prime minister ordered the ministry to keep the Cabinet Division posted about the progress of this unusual disciplinary action against the serving civil and military officials over a scandalous public procurement scam.

HOW IT ALL HAPPENED
The Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) on October 12, 2003 invited turnkey bids for installing an optical fibre link from Chittagong to Cox's Bazar as well as upgrading the Dhaka-Chittagong optical-fibre transmission line to connect the country with the SEA-ME-WE4 submarine cable network.

BTTB's six-member tender evaluation sub-committee found Canadian Nortel, with a Tk 33.80 crore offer, and German Siemens, who quoted Tk 49.60 crore, as the responsive bidders.

But, the high-powered TEC later dropped Nortel "without any valid reason" and inserted French Alcatel's Tk 36.80 crore bid instead. Alcatel was originally disqualified for technical non-compliance.

According to official records, TEC Member Fazlul Haque objected to his committee colleagues' picking Alcatel in place of Nortel. The telecoms ministry, which took note of Haque's view, asked the BTTB to re-evaluate the bid. During the revaluation, the TEC dropped Alcatel and recommended Siemens as the only qualified supplier.

As Siemens' bid was nearly Tk 17 crore more than Nortel's, the lowest bidder, Haque gave a note of dissent to this decision too. This time the ministry ignored his whistle blowing and endorsed Siemens' bid.

The Cabinet Committee on Public Procurement headed by Finance and Planning Minister Saifur Rahman met on March 21, 2005 to scrutinise the deal before forwarding it to the prime minister for a final approval.

The cabinet committee came down hard on the BTTB for taking too long a time to process the contract. "Since the project is directly linked with the international submarine cable consortium, unnecessary delay and irregularities would tarnish the country's image," it maintained.

It also questioned the BTTB's motive for selecting the highest bid.

The telecoms minister also failed to satisfy his cabinet colleagues with the choice that defies all excepted norms. This prompted the cabinet committee to unanimously reject the dubious deal and recommended prosecuting the officials responsible for such gross anomaly.

The prime minister on April 6 approved the recommendation and the Cabinet Division conveyed it to the ministry on April 10.

The ministry, however, preferred to sit on the directive. Finally, after 25 days, on May 5, a three-member committee headed by Additional Secretary of the finance ministry Quamrul Islam was formed to probe the scam. A joint secretary and a deputy secretary of the telecoms ministry are the other members.

RE-TENDER, DELAYS
The BTTB meanwhile has re-tendered the optical fibre link project, bids for which open today.

Sources said it would take at least three months to evaluate the bids, get approvals and award the contract. "By then the monsoon will be here and the ground water will gush out once the excavation for cable laying along the Chittagong-Cox's Bazar highway starts, making the job extremely difficult," said a senior BTTB official, requesting anonymity.

The SEA-ME-WE4 submarine cable has already been commissioned well ahead of schedule in Chennai and Colombo. "The consortium has already deferred Bangladesh's commencement schedule to November 1, 2005. But we will not be able to meet even this later deadline under any circumstances," the official admitted.

It means although the 1,262-kilometre Bangladesh segment of SEA-ME-WE4 submarine cable terminates in time at Cox's Bazar, the country will be forced to wait for a quarter or two to access the information superhighway because of the 160km missing link from Chittagong to Cox's Bazar.