Appointment of Port Operator

Ex-adviser asked to pay Tk 25cr compensation

3 November 2011, 18:00 PM

Court Correspondent

MA Matin

A Dhaka court has directed former shipping adviser MA Matin and former secretary Sheikh AK Motahar Hossain to pay up Tk 25 crore as compensation for ignoring the lowest bidder relating to a container handling job at the Chittagong port in 2008 in breach of rules. The Second Joint District Judge's Court in Dhaka yesterday issued the order on a lawsuit filed by Everest Enterprise in 2009 for compensation. Plaintiff Mohammad Shahadat Hossain, proprietor of the enterprise, alleged that the two dropped his company, the lowest bidder for container handling jobs at Chittagong port, from the bidding without showing any cogent reasons, and caused a loss of Tk 25 crore to his firm. In the judgment, the court observed that the cancellation of the bid had caused a loss not only to the firm but to the country as well. In his immediate reaction, Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin told The Daily Star that he would challenge the verdict in the higher court. The court said if the defendants failed to pay the compensation, the plaintiff could get the money by selling the movable and immovable properties of the two. It said the complainant could also file a petition for sending the two to a civil jail in case they failed to give compensation. "The shipping ministry not only violated the provisions for cancellation of bids but also misappropriated a huge amount of money by using its power. The last caretaker government caused great loss to the country, and took the country back to where it was two decades ago through corruption," said the judge. Plaintiff Shahadat said it was an “unprecedented and historic judgment” in terms of compensation. Shahadat filed the lawsuit against the two on September 1, 2009 after the Tender Evaluation Committee dropped his company, the lowest bidder, from the bidding process on November 20, 2008. In the meantime, a parliamentary sub-committee found that the defendants in collusion with others caused a loss of more than Tk 8 crore to the public exchequer by denying the lowest bidder, Everest Enterprise, the container handling job at Chittagong port.