IMED’s report on power sector: Additional secy also suspended

The authorities temporarily suspended Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division's (IMED) immediate past director general and additional secretary SM Hamiqul Haque on allegation of misconduct.

The public administration ministry issued a gazette notification in this regard on Thursday.

Earlier, he was made an officer on special duty (OSD), considered a punishment post, to the ministry.

The public administration ministry earlier suspended IMED’s former director and deputy secretary Mohammad Mahidur Rahman.

Mahidur Rahman recently published a research report on implementation progress of projects in power sector.

SM Hamidul Haque was adviser of the report. The report called the practice of paying capacity charges to power plants a "model of robbery". The report was uploaded to the website of IMED.

The report was widely discussed as some media published news on it. IMED later sent a rejoinder asserting that the statements attributed to it in the news reports does not reflect the IMED's views. These statements were originally published in the Bangla version of an English national daily, said IMED.

The rejoined also added that necessary initiatives have been taken up by the IMED to find out how an individual’s opinion expressed in an article were incorporated as part of the report and uploaded in the website.