It exists only in paper

The pandemic has ruined livelihoods of many hardworking honest people, but it apparently could not stop those who had been repeatedly feasting on public money.

In April, when the entire country was grappling to stop the spread of Covid-19, a civil contractor in collusion with at least one such repeat offender, also a government employee, collected over Tk 1.11 crore as payment for a job that exists only in paper.

The payment was collected on April 8 for constructing 10 community centres and concrete steps in six ponds for residents of at least ten different housing projects in Patuakhali's Kalapara upazila under Ashrayan-2. Surprisingly, the contractor returned the money to the authorities last week (invoice number 35, dated July 21). 

Ashrayan is a government-funded project, undertaken with an aim to provide housing facilities for the homeless and the underprivileged. 

Locals said Shamim Mia, proprietor of contractor firm Sarika Traders, located in Patuakhali's Rangabali upazila, returned the money on July 21 afternoon after more than three hundred residents of the Ashrayan project formed a human chain in the morning that day in front of Kalapara Police Station.

The Ashrayan residents at the demonstration demanded punishment for the ones who committed forgery to pocket the money from the project as well as completion of the project as planned. 

The incident of the forgery came to light after Abu Hasnat Mohammad Shahidul Haque, the new Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) who joined his workplace in Kalapara on March 22, was asked by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to submit a report on the progress of the construction of community centres and concrete steps for ponds under Ashrayan-2 project in the upazila.

During his investigation, UNO Hasnat found out that on April 8, more than two weeks into the transfer of the then UNO Munibur Rahman to Barisal Sadar upazila, the contractor collected Tk 1,11,17,635 after submitting relevant documents of the non-existent construction work with signatures of Munibur Rahman and Project Implementation Officer (PIO) of Kalapara Tapan Kumar Ghosh.

He also found anomalies in opening of a joint bank account with Pubali Bank where financial transactions were made for the same construction work. Although government money was deposited in the account, signatures of only one signatory, that of PIO Tapan Kumar Ghosh, were used for opening the account or conducting transactions in it.

Hasnat said he mentioned his findings in his report that he submitted recently to the PMO via the office of the deputy commissioner (DC) of Patuakhali. 

The former UNO, Munibur, said during his tenure in the previous workplace, he was not informed of the project undertaken for the construction of community centres and concrete steps in ponds as part of Ashrayan-2 and he never signed any document pertaining to release of payment for such construction work.

After he left Kalapara, in order to forge his signature, the criminals might have obtained his original signature samples that are available in different documents in the UNO's office in Kalapara, he added. 

Rintu Talukder, chairman of Champapur Union Parishad; and Anshar Uddin Mollah, chairman of Latachapali Union Parishad, said they were also not aware of any such project for Ashrayan-2 residential areas in their unions.

Both the public representatives also said that the entire process of the "mysterious project" deserves thorough investigation as all corresponding letters regarding the work, with the same contractor's name  mentioned, were issued only by the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and the payment was made directly to the bank account of the contractor.

When asked why he collected payment for a work that never took place, Shamim Mia, the contractor, said he only collected the money as the Project Implementation Office of Kalapara asked him to do so over phone.

But after realising that he had been unable to do any work since then due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation, he returned all the money to the government, he claimed. 

Reached over cell phone for his comments over the allegation, PIO Tapan Kumar Ghosh initially claimed ignorance and refused to divulge any information over phone, but he later said his signature was also forged to collect the money.

He also repeatedly offered to "discuss in detail" about the matter if this correspondent paid visit to his office.

While Tapan was working as PIO in Rangabali upazila, in a general diary (number 36) filed on April 8, 2020, it was stated that he had forged signatures of the local member of parliament and the UNO to assign a contractor for repair work of a rural road.

Furthermore, on August 13, 2013, while working in Kushtia Sadar upazila as PIO, he was suspended by department of disaster management and relief on charge of committing forgery to steal 100 tonnes of rice to be distributed under test relief (TR) programme of the government. He had to stay in jail custody during the incident, confirmed a source.       

Contacted, Patuakhali DC Matiul Islam Chowdhury confirmed that he has received the report prepared by Kalapara UNO and due action would be taken against the offenders following necessary investigation.