Corruption in procurement of wheat worth Tk 40b

In the last two years, poor quality wheat worth Tk 40 billion has been imported from Russia at higher than market price. This 1.1 million tonnes of wheat was imported from 2022 to benefit some businessmen close to former food minister Sadhan Chandra Majumdar.

Qamrul Islam was the food minister before Sadhan Chandra. During his tenure, low-quality wheat was imported from Brazil. After much criticism, the government raised the minimum protein standard for wheat from 11.5 per cent to 12.5 per cent that year. After Sadhan Chandra Majumdar took charge of food minister, the standard was again reduced to 11.5 per cent in 2022. By doing so, the import of low quality wheat was facilitated. It is alleged that this decision was taken in the interest of two businessmen close to the minister.

Professor Nazma Shahin of Institute of Nutrition and Food Science at Dhaka University told Prothom Alo when the protein is 11.5 per cent, moisture content of wheat increases. In this, bacteria and other harmful germs grow in the wheat. Such wheat becomes very harmful to the human body within a year of being stored. Consumption of flour made from this wheat causes various diseases including vision loss and cancer.

According to the memorandum dated 20 March, 2022 of the external procurement branch of the food ministry, the protein level of wheat imported from international sources has been reduced from 12.5 per cent to 11.5 per cent based on the opinion of the Bangladesh National Nutrition Council. At that time, nutritionists protested the decision.

Before that decision, the food ministry imported wheat of 12.5 per cent protein standard. Then the standard was lowered to facilitate those close to food minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder.

According to directives of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United States, the protein standard of wheat should range from 12 to 18 per cent. Eating foods made from wheat or flour with less nutritional value than this creates the risk of various types of malnutrition problems.

Food directorate signed a deal with Grain Flour DMCC in April for wheat import. Per tonne wheat was priced at USD 280 at that deal. The price of per tonne Russian wheat in the international market was mentioned at USD 202 in a FAO’s monthly Food Price Index. Including shipping and other costs, the price can be a maximum of USD 220. But the food department of the Bangladesh government paid USD 60 more in that deal.

According to sources in the food ministry, Russian company Pradintorg got the exclusive monopoly of importing wheat in the public sector after Sadhan Chandra Majumdar became minister of food in 2019. There is no rule of presence of any agent in case of Government to Government (GTO) imports. But in this case, National Electric Group, a supplier of energy products, worked as a middleman. Mia Sattar is the chairman and his brother Amiruzzaman Sohel is the managing director of National Electric Group. These two brothers are known as close to Sadhan Chandra Majumder.

Different media reports raised questions over the role of National Electric Group in public procurement. Role of third parties in such G2G procurement has always raised eyebrows as it goes against public procurement rules.

Asked about the issue, Mia Sattar told Prothom Alo in a Whatsapp message from Russia, “We have supplied the highest quality wheat from Russia to the Bangladesh government. The standard of supplied wheat has been verified by the laboratory tests of the Russian government.”

Md Ismail Hossain was the secretary of the food ministry at that time. He is currently a senior secretary of the social welfare ministry. Ismail Hossain told Prothom Alo that wheat was imported in accordance with the rules of the ministry and the government.

As the former food minister Sadhan Chandra is now in jail, his comment could not be taken on the issue.

The last two consignments of wheat brought in two years are now being unloaded at Chittagong port. The imported wheat is being distributed under a social security programme.

Syndicate in tender process too

Other than the government sector, the companies of those two brothers was also given priority when importing wheat in the private sector too. Before the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August, another company of the two brothers, RD Global, got approval for the import of around 100,000 tonnes of wheat through two international tenders.

The documents of RD Global indicate that Amiruzzaman Sohel is on of the major owners of the company. The address of this office is a house on Lane 28 of Mohakhali DOHS, the same address as the head office of National Electric Group owned by the two brothers. The company functions as the Bangladesh agent of the Dubai-based company Grain Flower DMCC.

Executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), Iftekharuzzaman, speaking to Prothom Alo, said it is a type of corruption to change government rules and import low quality wheat. By using the state machinery to buy that wheat at a higher price, the people's money has been wasted. Exemplary punishment should be given in the case of such corruption.