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The government Tuesday revised the Kushtia Medical College project for a second time with the cost almost doubling from the original estimate as scam allegedly hit it well before the start of construction work.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, presiding over the day's meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council that approved the revision, asked health and public works ministries to investigate the allegation, officials said.
She ordered necessary steps for finding out those involved in the alleged irregularities and mete out to them punitive action.
"The Directorate of Health has failed to complete the construction in nine years and now got a time extension for another two years up to June 2023 at the meeting," said one official.
After the ECNEC meeting was over, Planning Minister MA Mannan told the press that the prime minister asked the authorities to take fit action against the persons involved-"even after their retirement from civil service".
The ECNEC endorsed a total of nine projects, including the Kushtia Medical College and Hospital project, with an aggregate cost of Tk 65.51 billion.
Out of the projects, five were being revised while another four approved as fresh projects.
Meanwhile, the Kushtia Medical College project was sent back by the ECNEC in January this year following allegation of corruption in procurement.
The Planning Ministry had asked its Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) to conduct an evaluation amid the alleged corruption and wrongdoings there.
The IMED in Tuesday's ECNEC meeting presented its in-depth evaluation report mentioning some acts of misappropriation, said a meeting source.
Earlier in 2012, the ECNEC approved the Kushtia Medical College and Hospital construction projects involving Tk 2.75 billion for completing entire works by December 2014.
"Flouting the public procurement rules, the authorities had purchased goods and services from the suppliers and contractors directly or through limited tendering without open bidding," says the IMED in its report.
IMED said people involved with the project alleged the Health Directorate had not only failed to build the medical college in eight years but also violated the government planning process and resorted to several irregularities.
Although the Health Directorate prepared the original development project proposal (DPP) with the provision of 14 packages for all the procurements, it later split those into 84 packages in the revised DPP.
Splitting the packages into small ones, the authority used Limited Tendering Method (LTM) or Direct Procurement Method (DPM) in many cases.
The quality of the construction works was also found "very poor" in the IMED evaluation report, insiders said.
Meanwhile, the ECNEC at its meeting Tuesday also revised the Indian Line of Credit (LoC)-supported Khulna-Mongla railway-construction project also for a second time as it is also struggling for implementation delays.
It enhanced the cost of the Khulna-Mongla rail project by 148 per cent to Tk 42.61 billion from the original estimation of Tk17.21 billion.
Its implementation timeline has also been deferred until December 2022.
The government's economic policy body revised (1st revision) the ongoing Syadabad water- treatment (phase 2) project increasing its cost to Tk 75.18 billion, Upgradation of agricultural environment information system to Tk 2.12 billion, and Barapukuria-Kaliakor-Bogura 400kv project cost to Tk40.52 billion.
It approved four fresh projects including Tangail-Delduar-Lawhati-Saturia-Kalampur road construction project at Tk 14.36 billion, Setting up of two Agricultural Training Institutions at Jagannathpur and Mohanganj upazila at Tk 3.56 billion, Riverbank protection, excavation of small river and canal and water-bodies and removal of water-logging in Pirganj upazila in Rangpur at Tk 1.65 billion, and Left and right bank of the Kirtinasha River at Shariatpur district project at Tk 3.19 billion.
Ministers, Planning Commission members and officials concerned attended the ECNEC meeting.