Matin sued for Tk 25cr compensation

1 September 2009, 17:00 PM

Court Correspondent

A Tk 25 crore damage suit was filed with a Dhaka court yesterday against former shipping adviser Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin, a former shipping secretary, and Chittagong Port Authority (CPA). The former secretary, Sheikh AK Motahar Hossain, is now a member of the Privatisation Commission. Mohammad Shahadat Hossain, a businessman, filed the suit with the First Joint District Judge's Court of Dhaka, claiming Tk 25 crore in compensation. Judge KM Imrul Kayes asked the defendants appear before the court on October 14 with their written statements. In his plaint, Shahadat, proprietor of M/S Everest Enterprise, alleged that the CPA had floated a tender on May 25 last year for appointment of terminal operator for integrated operation of Chittagong Container Terminal (CCT) and CCT extension area. In response to the tender, he along with 10 others submitted bids. The CPA then formed a seven-member Tender Evaluation Committee (TEC) for scrutinising and evaluating the documents submitted by the bidders. The TEC scrutinised the documents and found that five bids were substantially responsive and six were non-responsive. The plaintiff claimed that the TEC said Everest Enterprise was the lowest bidder. But instead of awarding the contract to his firm, the last caretaker government cancelled the tender on November 20 last year without giving any 'cogent reasons'. Shahadat blamed the then shipping adviser Matin for cancellation of the tender. The 'mala fide' intention of the defendants caused a financial loss of Tk 25 crore to him, he said. Meantime, the parliamentary standing committee on shipping ministry at a meeting on May 27 this year discussed the issue and formed a House sub-committee to examine the extent of loss caused to the public exchequer by not awarding the contract to the lowest bidder 'Everest Enterprise', the plaintiff said. The House sub-committee investigated the matter and submitted its report containing a clear and unambiguous finding that the defendants in collusion with others had cancelled the tender causing a loss of Tk 8,05,84,096 to the public exchequer, Shahadat added.