Govt to take action against malpractice

The government will take action if it finds any malpractice in awarding companies with the Tk542 crore network expansion project of state-run mobile phone operator TeleTalk, said telecoms ministry in-charge Brig Gen (retd) MA Malek yesterday.
He said, “I believe the cost of the project will definitely reduce if the operator goes for an open tender process."
The TeleTalk board earlier selected two companies for the work through negotiations but the companies could not start work due to controversy.
A scrutiny committee has already been formed to study the project's budget, and the final decision on an open tender for the project will come after getting report of the committee, he said. "We will go for action if we find any irregularities in awarding the project."
Malek, who is also a special assistant to the chief adviser, at a meeting with Telecom Reporters Network, Bangladesh, yesterday disclosed the government's plans to help survive the state-run telecom operators -- BTTB and TeleTalk.
He said the talks of offloading TeleTalk's 30 percent share in the capital market are going on, but the government has no plan to sell the operator's stake to foreign companies right now.
He also unveiled the government's plan to expand TeleTalk's network in all 25 upazilas of three districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Plans to strengthen TeleTalk were first discussed more than two years ago and the operator finally approved the Tk542 crore network expansion project in February this year. Soon after this, the membership of the company's board was changed and several members of the new board expressed concerns over the budget allocated for the expansion project.
In February, the TeleTalk board decided to award the company's existing vendors -- Huawei and Nokia-Seimens with 40 percent or Tk216 crore worth initial network expansion works. According to the board decision, the rest of the work was to be awarded through an open bidding process.
However, the awards soon ran into controversy as telecom industry experts began to question the allegedly high-cost estimates of the TeleTalk board.
Some rival vendors also alleged that the mobile operator bypassed the Purchase and Procurement Regulation in awarding the mega project.
Malek said, "Expanding TeleTalk's network instead of setting up BTTB's digital exchange will help government save Tk109 crore."
The special assistant said a new board will take charge of Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) within a week.
The government will give priority to telecom experts instead of bureaucrats while appointing members of the BTTB's new board, he added.
TeleTalk is the country's smallest operator in terms of subscribers with a 2 percent market share. It started operations in 2005 with high hopes, but has failed to compete with the five other multinational operators in Bangladesh due to lack of quality services and poor marketing.
Until April 2008, the operator was able to add only 0.99 million customers in two years, whereas its nearest rival Warid Telecom International had 3 million customers although it entered the market in 2007.
Grameenphone is the country's largest operator with 18 million subscribers followed by Banglalink with 8.64 million.