Media report revealed, a senior executive of Sonali Bank (one of the four banks that invested in the project) said that the project should be reviewed by the government as the contractor was claiming higher costs incurred than the project’s estimated cost. He insisted that there was no monitoring of the actual cost and income. In his opinion the government ultimately should take over the project, otherwise banks will never get back their invested fund.
We are compelled to say that this is not a healthy picture of first PPP project in Bangladesh. From the very beginning of the project the contractor company was playing with its influence to get favour and it is still continuing according to media report. If the contractor company does not refund the loan, it appears in the name of PPP project, the huge amount will be lost from the concerned state-owned banks. These are depositors’ money. It cannot be so easily misused or put at risk.
This was a mega project to glorify the government. But the way it was done has created a bad example. The contractor company succeeded to reschedule the loan without paying any dividend simply suggests that they have strong influence at the corridors of power. The question that arises is, who will bear the pain of huge amount of public money, drained out from the banks in the name of PPP mega project?
