Staff Reporter :
The Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company bears the burden of highly paid 35 officials at the top management level from the very beginning of the construction period.
The joint venture company has already employed 100 officials and low-grade employees of them only 37 are appointed at different positions from managing director to senior manager.
Till April 26, 20 per cent work of the power plant has been implemented.
The company is a 50-50 joint venture of ‘Bangladesh Power Development Board and India’s National Thermal Power Corporation or NTPC’. It has employed 35 from India leaving only the positions of Chief Human Resource Officer and Chief Procurement Officer for Bangladeshi citizens.
Experts and officials observed that no large number of highly paid officials is needed at the construction phase as the contractors are supposed play the main role.
Energy expert M Tamim, also former special assistant to the chief adviser of an
interim government, said there was no need to employ so many officials at the top management level during the construction period.
The company should have a small team for monitoring construction works as contractors are there for building the power plant and consultants for supervision, he explained, adding that it would increase expenditure of the friendship company.
He also said that almost 95 per cent of employment from the Indian side in the top positions was a breach of the spirit of 50-50 joint venture.
Asked if there was any necessity to appoint so many officials in the top positions of the company, Power Division Secretary Ahmad Kaikaus, who is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the JV company, said that he would look into the matter.
He said that he would also look into whether the appointment of 35 out of 37 top officials from India was a breach of the spirit of the contract for the two neighbours’ joint venture initiative.
The secretary, however, claimed that their objective was to ensure efficient use of resources with quality outcome from the project.
The Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company bears the burden of highly paid 35 officials at the top management level from the very beginning of the construction period.
The joint venture company has already employed 100 officials and low-grade employees of them only 37 are appointed at different positions from managing director to senior manager.
Till April 26, 20 per cent work of the power plant has been implemented.
The company is a 50-50 joint venture of ‘Bangladesh Power Development Board and India’s National Thermal Power Corporation or NTPC’. It has employed 35 from India leaving only the positions of Chief Human Resource Officer and Chief Procurement Officer for Bangladeshi citizens.
Experts and officials observed that no large number of highly paid officials is needed at the construction phase as the contractors are supposed play the main role.
Energy expert M Tamim, also former special assistant to the chief adviser of an
interim government, said there was no need to employ so many officials at the top management level during the construction period.
The company should have a small team for monitoring construction works as contractors are there for building the power plant and consultants for supervision, he explained, adding that it would increase expenditure of the friendship company.
He also said that almost 95 per cent of employment from the Indian side in the top positions was a breach of the spirit of 50-50 joint venture.
Asked if there was any necessity to appoint so many officials in the top positions of the company, Power Division Secretary Ahmad Kaikaus, who is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the JV company, said that he would look into the matter.
He said that he would also look into whether the appointment of 35 out of 37 top officials from India was a breach of the spirit of the contract for the two neighbours’ joint venture initiative.
The secretary, however, claimed that their objective was to ensure efficient use of resources with quality outcome from the project.
