A REPORT carried by a vernacular daily said that the office of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) has been virtually occupied by ruling party men and underworld kingpins who are trying to manipulate tenders of Tk 700 crore projects — Purbachal New City, Uttara Residential Model Town (3rd phase) and Uttara Flats. The tender manipulators have taken every step, including deploying miscreants, thugs and ruling party cadres, to get work orders by fudging the system. It is alleged that the Executive Engineer of RAJUK is behind the tender manipulation and the situation became worst after this XEN joined. Tender manipulation, a form of corruption, is a regular job of the activists and leaders of the ruling party and its front organisations in different public offices after the party assumed power in 2009. Despite introducing e-tender system in public offices, the ruling party loyal contractors and their musclemen openly engage in clashes to snatch work orders. The non-existent role of law enforcing agencies in arresting tender manipulators and suspending such corruption encourages manipulators.
As the manipulators create an environment of intimidation and fear, RAJUK has extended the last days of submission for tenders till mid-July as the concerned Minister dictated to them. Insiders said that the RAJUK engineer is engaged in different types of conspiracy with his supported contractors at the office room, home or restaurant to grab work orders. Everyone inside RAJUK is aware of the tender manipulation by the Engineer but they overlook the incident. Some strangers are campaigning inside the RAJUK building to get the work order of surface drains and project roads of the Purbachal New City Project. Following the open tendering system, RAJUK called tenders for the project’s partial development on May 19. As per the schedule, June 24 was the last date of submitting tender but the authorities were compelled to extend the tenure. Earlier, on May 14 eight group tenders for constructing surface drains in the Sectors 9, 10, 11, 14, 15 and 16 of the Purbachal Projects was called. Meanwhile, to get tender orders of Tk 400 crore projects of Uttara Residential Model Town (3rd phase) and Uttara Flats, armed cadres supporting several contractors were on a war mood.
Tender submission clashes between factions of ruling party have occupied the attention of people over the last few years. In April 2014, two people were killed and 30 others injured as two factions of the ruling Awami League clashed in Habiganj over tender submission. On March 17, this year, clashes between two rival groups of the ruling party injured 10 people, including a policeman, over sharing of tender for road repair work in Barisal. In July 2014, another 10 people, including two policemen, were injured during a clash over dropping tender in Kushtia and in May last year, 20 people were hurt in Meherpur over tender manipulation. The latest tender clash between ruling party men injured five over a local tender drop in Barisal city on June 3 last. All these happened almost before the eyes of law enforcers.
Definitely tender manipulation is corruption as by manipulating tenders public money is wasted and the manipulators use substandard materials in works or withdraw more money from the government by maintaining nexus with officials. To ensure sustainable development and to keep its own party men safe, the government should take political steps as well as let the law run in its own course to award due punishment to the offenders.
