Tk 25cr Damage Suit

Court asks Gen Matin, secy Motahar to submit statements by Nov 4

14 October 2009, 17:00 PM

Court Correspondent

Former shipping adviser to caretaker government Maj Gen (Retd) MA Matin and former shipping secretary Sheikh AK Motahar Hossain appeared before a Dhaka court yesterday through their lawyers to contest the Tk 25 crore damage suit by a businessman. Their lawyers also filed petitions seeking time for submitting written statements against the suit filed by a businessman Mohammad Shahadat Hossain on September 1. Judge KM Imrul Kayes of the First Joint District Judge's Court granted the petition for time and asked the two defendants to submit written statements against the suit by November 4. In his plaint, Shahadat, proprietor of M/S Everest Enterprise, alleged that the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) 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 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 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.