Dev Project at Gopalganj Univ: The puzzle of Tk 10 crore
If you go by the documents of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University in Gopalganj, over 68 percent work to build a concrete Shaheed Minar on the campus has been completed.
But what the university really has is a makeshift wooden structure, which too is left uncared for, with a frame on its upper part dislodged.
As per the progress report, Tk 1.63 crore out of the total Tk 2.38 crore was spent till June 2018 for the Shaheed Minar construction, which actually has not even begun.
The story doesn’t end here. The authorities mentioned in the official documents that they spent about Tk 8.5 crore in constructing Bangabandhu Mural Complex, an auditorium and two gates of the university.
The papers show sixteen percent work of the mural complex, 15 percent of auditorium and 47 percent of the gates have been completed. But there are no signs of these structures yet.
The university is currently under the spotlight with students demonstrating for resignation of Vice-Chancellor Prof Khondoker Md Nasiruddin amid allegations including corruption in the project and nepotism in recruitment.
Contacted, the VC said there has been no irregularities in the university development project. Claiming that no project money was spent yet, he asked this correspondent to contact the project director or his deputy for details.
Tuhin Mahmud, deputy project director, ruled out graft but admitted that they showed the expenditure in their documents.
“We have to show the cost in advance to get the budgetary allocation in the coming years. Actually, no money has been spent yet,” he told The Daily Star.
Asked about the funds shown spent, Tuhin said they sent back the money to the state exchequer. He also claimed all the universities implement projects this way.
But a deputy registrar of Dhaka University, who was involved in various development projects at the DU over the last eight years, disagrees with Tuhin. “I do not know how they have done it. We never did so at Dhaka University. Showing expenditure without doing any work is a breach of rules.”
Preferring anonymity, he further said, “We mentioned the actual progress in our development projects. We were always much ahead in our work against the money released.”
Contacted yesterday, Ferdous Zaman, director (planning and development) of the University Grants Commission, said there was no scope for showing expenditure without doing any work. It goes against the rules and regulations of development planning.
“It creates room for corruption,” he said.
“We will write to the university authorities to know the progress of all the components of the development project. Then everything will be clear.”
Several officials of the finance ministry echoed the views of the UGC director and the DU deputy registrar.
The Tk 105-crore development project, comprising 23 components, was taken up in 2014 and was supposed to be completed last year. Later, the project was revised and the cost expanded to Tk 255.56 crore, setting a fresh deadline of June 2020.
“We would have floated tender for the construction of Bangabandhu Mural Complex and Shaheed Minar in a couple of days but movement is going on,” Deputy Project Director Tuhin said on Sunday.
On Thursday, when several thousand students started pressing for the VC’s resignation, the university authorities circulated a decision to begin the construction of Bangabandhu Mural Complex and Shaheed Minar in six months.
“It’s a shame that the construction of Bangabandhu’s Mural Complex or Shaheed Minar has not started even in over eight years of establishment of the university named after Bangabandhu. But the authorities are showing crores of taka spent for this purpose,” said a student of law department.
The demonstrators demanded a fair investigation into all implemented and ongoing projects of the university.
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