No new graft allegations

No new allegations have emerged about graft in the Padma Bridge project, asserted the project's Integrity Adviser Mashiur Rahman yesterday.
The adviser said this to newsmen after emerging from a meeting with the representatives of the three co-financiers of the $2.9 billion project at the Economic Relations Division in the capital.
Mashiur said as the integrity adviser he is responsible to apprise the co-financiers -- World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency -- periodically about whether any fresh graft allegation has been received or not.
Asked repeatedly about the outcome of the meeting, Mashiur said, “I am like a duck. I can step into water, walk on the ground and even fly a little.”
Meeting sources said the co-financiers were mainly apprised of the latest developments in the project.
WB Country Director Allen Goldstein and representatives of other co-financiers were present.
Making the graft allegation, the lead financier WB in September last year had suspended funding for the bridge.
The bank will inform the government by the end of this month whether it would rescind its suspension decision.
The Anti-corruption Commission has been investigating into the alleged corruption and it will send the adviser a copy of the probe report.