Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the authorities concerned to take punitive action against those responsible for unusual delays and irregularities in a project for building a medical college hospital in Kushtia.

She asked for action against officials responsible for the situation, even if they have retired.

The PM gave the directive when a proposal on the second revision of the project was placed for approval before the meeting of Executive Committee of the National Economic Council yesterday. The proposal was given the go-ahead.

Following the revision, the project cost has escalated to Tk 682.46 crore from the original Tk 275.43 crore. The deadline has been pushed to June 2023 from the original one of December 2014, a delay of more than a hundred months.

The project had witnessed 60 percent progress until December last year, show documents.

Cost escalations and delays in development projects are common in the country and the prime minister expressed discontent over the issue on several occasions in the past.

More than 300 projects sought time extension last fiscal year.

Even yesterday, five of the nine project proposals placed before the Ecnec meeting were for time and cost revisions.

But action has hardly been taken against anyone for the delays and cost escalations, said officials concerned. 

"The prime minister told us that no one would be spared. They will face action even if they have gone into retirement," Nasima Begum, member (socio economic infrastructure division) of the planning commission, told reporters after the meeting, which was presided over by the PM virtually from the Gono Bhaban.

Talking to The Daily Star later in the day, Prof Shamsul Hoque of Buet's civil engineering department said, "I am very happy that the prime minister has given such a directive. No one has been held accountable for project delays and cost escalations as yet."

He pointed out that poor feasibility study was the root cause of challenges faced during project implementation. Those responsible for such poor studies must be held accountable, he said.

The practice of changing project directors must be stopped as well. This practice prevents the authorities from holding project directors accountable.

Besides, officials in ministries or other supervising bodies must not take any undue benefits from any project. Because if they take such benefits, they will not be able to take action against those responsible, said Prof Shamsul.

THE MEDICAL COLLEGE HOSPITAL

The government had approved the project to built Kushtia Medical College and Hospital between January 2012 and December 2014 at a cost of Tk 275.44 crore.

But no feasibility test was carried out before the project was approved. Even the land for the project was not selected at that time, according to an in-depth report of the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) released in June last year.

Changes in the rate schedule, inclusion of new work and completion of incomplete work were cited as reasons for the second revision of the project, said officials concerned.

The original deadline was extended to 2016 in two phases, without increasing the project costs. But when the project went through the first revision in 2018, the cost rose to Tk 611.08 crore and December 2019 was set as the deadline.

The project had seen only 34 percent physical progress until 2019 when the second revision was submitted, which had remained pending for more than one year.

"Mismanagement was found from the outset," read the IMED report.

The report also mentioned that bamboo and wood was being used, instead of steel, for the construction of a building. On January 17, 2019, a portion of that building collapsed, killing one worker and injuring 10 others.

In its report, IMED mentioned 25 weak points in implementation.

The medical college has been admitting 50 students every year since  2012. Its academic activities have been ongoing in some buildings without medical equipment.

No equipment could be procured as the construction work was not complete, said officials.

In January this year, when the second revision was placed before the Ecnec for approval, the prime minister directed the authorities concerned to investigate the delay and cost hike, instead of giving a go-ahead to the revised proposal.

A top official of the planning ministry, who is aware of the investigation, said the probe committee found project work "inconsistent with planning discipline" and held both the health department and public works department responsible.

"It is the responsibility of the ministries concerned to find out the responsible persons and take action against them," the official told The Daily Star, wishing not to be named.

The official said the project was approved in 2012 when the rate schedule of 2011was available but the project cost was estimated following the rate schedule of 2008.

As a result, when the project authorities went to implement the project, they fall short of money, and curtailed work scope, he said.

Till 2016, the deadline of the project was changed twice but no one felt the necessity to change the rate schedule, he said.

After yesterday's meeting, Planning Minister MA Mannan said people, even local lawmakers, expressed discontent over the long delay.

The IMED secretary has already visited the project site and submitted a report, which has already been placed before the prime minister, he said.

"The prime minister asked us to take action against the real culprits," he said.

Nasima Begum said the prime minister asked them to take action as per the recommendations of the probe report.

Several persons, whose names appeared in the probe report, have already gone into retirement.

"Action can be taken against them [retired persons] under the PDR [Public Demands Recovery] Act if money is involved," she said.

OTHER DELAYED PROJECTS

Ecnec yesterday also approved a proposal on the second revision of a project for the construction of the Khulna-Mongla port rail line.

The project to construct the 64.75km rail line was taken in 2010. The work was supposed to be completed within three years.

The project's physical work did not kick off even after six years of the approval but the cost rose to Tk 3,801 crore, 120 percent higher than the original estimates.

The project authorities then sought another Tk 459.27 crore and a one-and-a-half-year extension of the project's previous deadline in June this year. As of August, the project witnessed 86.72 percent progress.

Another project got approval yesterday is Sayedabad Water Treatment Project (Phase-3).

The original cost of the project was Tk 4597.36 crore and it was supposed to be implemented between July 2015 and June 2020. Now the cost would be Tk 7515.02 and the new deadline is June 2025.

Mamun-Al-Rashid, member (physical infrastructure division) of the planning commission, said the project witnessed only 2.4 percent physical work progress in the last seven years.

Complexities over funding by development partners and land acquisition mainly caused the delay, he said.

The prime minister yesterday also directed the authorities concerned to take strict measures so that industries set up on the river banks cannot dispose their untreated waste into the rivers.

She also directed to use money from the foreign currency reserve if the authorities failed to manage funds from development partners.

[Our Kushtia correspondent Amanur Aman contributed to this report]