Hours after making a decision of allowing a private firm to resume upgrading a part of the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway, Communications Minister Obaidul Quader yesterday retracted from it, as he did not know about the allegation of document forgery against the firm.
Five months ago, when Syed Abul Hossain was the communications minister, his ministry cancelled the deal with Intraco (BD) Associates Ltd on charge of fraudulence. The firm later went to the High Court challenging the ministry's decision.
Quader, who replaced Abul on December 5, yesterday went to look over the state of the highway and came to know that the upgrading work of the 30km Joydevpur-Mawna part has been held up due to the cancellation of the contract and Intraco's subsequent petition.
He then held a meeting with the firm's officials at a rest house in Rajendrapur around 3:00pm. Chief Engineer (current charge) Abdul Quddus, Joint Secretary of the communications ministry Farid Uddin Ahmed and Project Director Firoz Iqbal were among the senior officials present in the meeting.
However, none of the officials briefed the minister about the background of the Intraco petition. So without knowing the case of document forgery, Quader asked Intraco to withdraw the petition and resume the work.
Intraco as well assured the minister of withdrawing the case by Sunday and resume work from January 15 next year.
Meanwhile, The Daily Star around 7:45pm contacted the communications minister to know about the grounds of awarding the firm the job without settling the legal issues and the allegation against the firm, he said all he wanted was to resume the work, which felt more important to him.
However, at 8:39pm Quader called The Daily Star over the phone and said he had cancelled his afternoon's decision.
"I did not know about the history behind the cancellation of the deal in the first place until you [The Daily Star] contacted me. I have contacted the chief engineer, the project director and ministry officials and come to know about the background of the case. Now the work will remain stopped until the legal issue is settled," said the communication minister.
"I have directed the ministry to convey the message to Intraco right now [last night]. Thanks to The Daily Star for its repeated enquiry, as it helped me avoid many legal complications," said Quader, also a member of the Awami League praesidium.
Responding to another query, he said actions will be taken against Intraco if investigation reveals any of its wrong doing. Even the Anti-Corruption Commission may investigate the matter if it wishes to, he added.
The Daily Star tried to talk to the Intraco officials but could not reach them over the phone.
BACKGROUND
The Awami League government in its electoral manifesto pledged to upgrade the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway into four lanes and accordingly took a Tk 904-crore project in 2010.
On January 27 this year, former chief engineer Shahab Uddin of Roads and Highways Department (RHD) and Sheikh Babar Ali of Intraco signed a Tk 330-crore deal to upgrade the 30km road from Joydevpur to Mawna in two packages.
The deal was signed following recommendations of a six-member tender evaluation committee (Tec) headed by RHD Additional Chief Engineer Aminur Rahman Laskar. Intraco was handed over the sites on April 6 this year.
However, in the middle of the evaluation, Tec received a complaint against Intraco that it had forged documents on the joint venture partnership with Chinese firm Hebei Road and Bridge Group Company (HRBC) Ltd.
The Tec took the allegation into consideration but found that the name and address the complainant used were fake.
Anyhow, Tec communicated with HRBC head office in China which confirmed that the joint venture with Intraco was genuine, says the evaluation report of Tec.
“We did it to make the evaluation process transparent and accurate,” a Tec member had told The Daily Star earlier.
Meanwhile, all of a sudden Firoz Iqbal, PD of the Joydevpur-Mymensingh 4-lane project, on May 25 wrote to HRBC that their work had not been satisfactory. He asked them to mobilise a team and expedite the work.
In reply, the Chinese firm on May 31 emailed the head of Tec, not the PD, saying that the joint venture partnership claimed by Intraco was forged.
Later the then communications minister Syed Abul Hossain announced that the company's joint venture documents with Chinese HRBC were forged and that he was going to take actions against the firm.
He sent the ministry's Deputy Secretary Nurul Amin and Tec chief Aminur Rahman Laskar to China to verify the joint venture documents. On return, the duo confirmed that the documents were not genuine.
Sources in the communications ministry said Intraco was so desperate to obtain a big project that they quoted an amount 19 percent less than the estimated cost.
Four local firms, all having joint venture agreements with three Chinese companies, got the four-package upgrading work of the highway. Of them, Intraco got first two packages (Joydevpur-Rajendrapur and Rajendrapur-Mawna).
A joint venture of Project Builders Ltd and Major Bridge Engineer Company of China got the Tk 388-crore package-3 to upgrade 30-kilometre road from Mawna to Raimoni.
The Tk 266-crore package-4, upgrading work of 27km Raimoni-Mymensingh road, was awarded to Shamim Enterprise Limited and Toma, who have joint venture with Metallurgical Construction Overseas Company of China (MCCC).
The work between Mawna and Mymensingh is going on in full swing. The contractors are now filling both sides of the highway and constructing bridges and culverts.