Sagar Biswas :
Defying objection from concerned government departments and intelligence agency, the Directorate of Food has recently paid Tk 90 crore to the importing agency which was responsible for importing about 1 lakh tones inconsumable wheat from France.
Of the total Tk 100 crore, the Directorate of Food paid Tk 90 crore without maintaining official rules and regulations where some unscrupulous officials have allegedly benefited financially.
In this backdrop, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Food has expressed severe annoyance over faulty procedure of wheat import and money payment.
Blaming the Food Directorate for large-scale corruption, the JS body at a meeting on February 7, presided over by committee chairman Abdul Wadud MP, directed the concerned ministry to realise the money [Tk 90 crore] from the responsible officials.
At the same time, the JS body also asked the government to blacklist the importer Impex Consultant Limited and give exemplary punishment to dishonest officials of Food Directorate. It said the large-scale payment was made without testing standard of wheat properly.
When contacted, Minister of Food Advocate Quamrul Islam told The New Nation Saturday night, “Not my ministry, rather Directorate of Food is solely responsible for importing such wheat from France. Yes, they are also responsible for payment of bill.”
The Minister said, “They [Food Directorate] did not inform me about the payment of bill. As per procedure, the Food Directorate can pay bill for importing food grains. And for that reason, they did not send any copy of the bill to my ministry.” Interestingly, Director General of Food Fayez Ahmed refrained from making any comment despite repeated attempts yesterday night.
Terming former DG of Food Directorate Md Sarwar Khan as ‘cooperator’, the JS body also asked the government to ensure tough punishment for making such deal for importing rotten what from France.
When asked, Md Sarwar Khan said, “No payment was made during my period.”
Meanwhile, the issue of rotten wheat came again to the forefront, when National Security Intelligence [NSI] recently submitted a report to government high-ups accusing chief of Food Directorate for large-scale corruption in wheat import spending huge government money.
After the Brazilian wheat scandal, the Food Directorate opened a fresh controversy importing about 52, 500 metric tons of ‘inconsumable’ wheat from France in a tender at US$243.69 a tonne, including CIF liner out on March 24 last year. The wheat laden ship reached at Chittagong Port on May 10 samr year.
Official sources said that the French wheat was not found up-to-the-mark after conducting joint test by Food Directorate and Chittagong Port Authority [CPA]. And for that reason, they made objection to unload the wheat.
The NSI report said, “The DG of Food Directorate is a man of immoral character and for that reason he used to involve in corruption getting immoral pressure from others. Especially, he obeys all sorts of directives given by the ‘corrupt syndicate’ of Food Directorate without any question.”
Officials said, last year France had emerged as a key wheat supplier to Bangladesh and a French farm Phoenix Commodities won the deal. A fall in the euro and low freight rates helped France to sell feed wheat to Asian buyers, part of its rain-affected 2014 crop that failed to meet the requirements of some bread-wheat importers, the officials said.
In the backdrop of wheat scandal exposure, Secretary of Food Ministry Musfeka Ikfat had said, “There were some problems about the wheat imported from France. The primary test report had shown that the wheat quality was not good enough for consumption…..The Directorate of Food can explain the reason why they did not send back the wheat to the country of origin.”
