Money pit of Ctg customs

The Customs House Chattogram bought two patrol boats for Tk 2.86 crore in the mid 80s to monitor the outer anchorage of Chittagong port and end illegal loading and offloading.

Nine years ago from now, the boat became unusable and remained out of use for four years. The authorities then tried to make those usable spending Tk 5 crore five years ago, but the boats did not function even for a day after the repair. The Customs House now want to repair one of the two boats with Tk 3.11 crore again, scrapping  the other.

Earlier in January, the Customs House authorities sent a draft proposal to the National Board of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance for approval in this regard.

Meanwhile, the outer anchorage of Chittagong port remained unwatched by the customs, said insiders.

Documents obtained by The Daily Star showed the Ministry of Finance allocated Tk 5 crore to the customs house to buy new boats in 2014-15.

The customs house, however, spent the entire money on repairing the boats and a jetty where it was planned to dock the boats.

Employees of the boats -- PB Safen and PB Somikkha -- feared if the ministry provides the Customs House with money this time, it would be wasted again.

Contacted, Customs Commissioner Fakhrul Alam said the decision of scrapping one boat was made as that could not be repaired successfully.

The other boat could be serviceable if it was overhauled, he added.

Asked about the last repair works, he said, "I do not know why the ships did not work even after repairing. Only those in charge at that time would be able to say."

Asked, the then customs commissioner Masud Sadiq claimed that there was no irregularity in repairing the boats.

He told The Daily Star "After spending the money on two petrol boats in several steps, the masters of the boats found several defects when they went on a sea trail.

"However, due to a lack of budget at that time, no further work could be done."

WHO DID THE REPAIR WORK?

Chittagong Dry Dock Ltd, a company that is now under Bangladesh Navy but was privately owned during the repair work, received the contract to repair the two boats when the finance ministry allocated the money in 2014-15 fiscal year.

The repair work was conducted between April and June in 2014.

When the boats were handed to the masters of the boats, they found at least 40 errors, including leakage on the keels and engine malfunction.

Humayun Kabir, master of PB Shomikkha, said it was not possible to buy new boats of the same caliber when the finance ministry allocated Tk 5 crore. Thus, a decision of repairing the boats came.

However, repairing the boats did not make anything better, he added.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

Mohammad Nazmul Karim Kislu, managing director of Chittagong Dry Dock Ltd, said the boats were repaired a long ago and the company was not even under Bangladesh Navy back then.

However, if the customs authorities complaint that there were irregularities in the work, they would investigate, he said.

Meanwhile, Khondaker Muhammad Aminur Rahman, member (Customs Audit, Modernisation and International Trade) of NBR, said they had no information about any irregularities in the boats' repair work.

"Actions will be taken if anyone is found involved in any irregularities," he added.

He also said repairing those boats again would be a wastage of government money. Rather, they would buy at least one patrol boat with the money. 

Boats similar to PB Safen and PB Somikkha may cost as much as Tk 15 crore now, he added.