47 'fraudulent' contractors mounting pressure on RHD to lift ban
Some 47 contractors, who exclusively obtained contract jobs and later were blacklisted for their fraudulence during the Sheikh Hasina regime, are mounting pressure on the roads and highways department (RHD) to lift the ban on them.
These contractors staged a demonstration in front of the headquarters of RHD in Tejgaon on Sunday. They also placed a 10-point demand in a memorandum to the chief engineer.
The contractors threatened of laying seige to the RHD building unless their demand is not met by three days.
Under such a circumstance, sources said, the chief engineer was scheduled to hold a meeting with contractors on Wednesday evening.
RHD sources said the fraudulent contractors are presenting themselves as deprived ones. The officials, who took action against the unscrupulous contractors, are being blamed as the ones loyal to the previous Awami League government.
A number of officials with the status of additional engineer at RHD are backing these contractors. These officials mainly assisted the some contractors to obtain work exclusively. These officials are beneficiaries.
RHD sources said owners of nine contract firms signed the memorandum submitted to the chief engineer.
In the last one decade, 10 contract firms got most of the work. Of these, five firms signed the memorandum. The firms are: NDI, Masud Hightech, Reliable Builders, MS Saleh Ahmed and Hasan Tecno.
Remaining four contract firms also got a huge amount of work in the last one decade. These are: Sagor Info Builders, J Enterprise, MA Engineering and Md Khorsheduzzaman.
RHD officials said the owners of these firms have been doing contract jobs unilaterally for the last one decade utilising the weakness of the E-Tendering.
On 14 October 2023, a report titled 'Five companies get 51 pc of the contracts' was published.
A lawyer filed a writ in the High Court on 6 November last year regarding award of most of the work to a few contractors.
RHD on 19 November formed the investigation committee as per the order of the court. A two-member probe committee headed by RHD’s additional chief engineer AKM Rezaul Karim submitted its report in January and action against the contractors started from February.
Afterwards, RHD blacklisted 47 contract firms on charges of obtaining contract jobs by submitting fake certificates. These contract firms went to court but they could not lift the ban. Now after the change of the government, they are mounting pressure to lift the ban on them.
RHD sources said the blacklisted contract firms would control over 90 per cent work of roads. However, the number of contractors that work on roads is around 1,100.
There are several types of forgery including submitting fake work experience certificates, showing higher valuation of work, showing documents of completion of work on time despite failing to meet deadlines, submitting same document repeatedly in a single tender and submitting fake document of joint venture.
Some firms have submitted certificates of experience of working with Water Development Board (WDB), Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Public Works Department, Bangladesh Railway and different other government bodies. Some of these certificates were found to be fake.
About the matter, road, rail and bridges division adviser Fouzul Kabir Khan, speaking to Prothom Alo, said he is aware of the matter. Nothing can be achieved by mounting pressure. If any contract firm resort to the forgery, it has to remain under the ban.