RMG worker layoff after taking Tk 50b inhuman: Rizvi
BNP’s senior secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has denounced BGMEA president’s announcement of a workers’ layoff from June. He said that after they took a stimulus package of Tk 50 billion, this announcement was totally unacceptable.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader was speaking at a press briefing on Sunday at the party’s central office in Naya Paltan of the capital city. He said that even outside of the Tk 50 billion stimulus package, the garment factory owners received all sorts of facilities. It was inhuman of them to announce a layoff even after receiving all these benefit, he said, adding that there may be some ill motive behind the matter.
The government has planned to import ventilators, but no purchase order has been issued as yet, Rizvi said. Corruption had entered the scene even before the imports were made.
Rizvi said that there was corruption in the World Bank-funded project for emergency assistance to tackle coronavirus. Quoting media reports, he said that purchases were being made for the project at costs much higher than the market price. Procurements to be made under the project included 100,000 plastic goggles, 17,000 PPE and 76,600 pairs of boots. The goggles cost between Tk 500 to Tk 1000 per pair, but in the project this was shown to be Tk 5000 per pair. The market price of each PPE was Tk 1000 to Tk 2000, but this was being quoted at Tk 4,700 each. A pair of boots costing Tk 300 to Tk 500, were being shown to cost Tk 1,500.
The government has planned to import ventilators, but no purchase order has been issued as yet, Rizvi went on to say. Corruption had entered the scene even before the imports were made. The delays in import were intentional, creating scope for corruption, he said.