Home ›› 03 Mar 2023 ›› Governance
The Anti-Corruption Commission has started enquiry against construction companies – Toma Group and Max Group – on charges of embezzling public money through corruption and irregularities in different government projects in the country.
The two construction firms have monopolized the tenders of thousands of crores of taka from various departments of the government including Bangladesh Railway.
According to the allegations, the officials of Max Group and Toma Group have been accused of using low-quality construction materials in projects and laundering money abroad by opening fake LCs in the name of importing various machinery.
There are also allegations that the two companies embezzled several hundred crores of taka from NRB Global Bank in the name of loans.
The two companies with the help of some dishonest government officials embezzled a huge amount of money by increasing the duration and costs of different government projects by making syndicates, said ACC officials.
They also said a strong syndicate has been formed to control the tender process of Bangladesh Railways with the connivance of Toma and Max groups. It has been alleged that the members of the syndicate are taking the works of all the mega projects of the railways through establishing their influences.
They said a three-member enquiry team of ACC led by its deputy director Monayem Hossain recently started an enquiry to find out the irregularities and corruption of the two contracting companies. The members of the enquiry team have already started collecting data from different offices against the two companies.
A letter was sent to the director general of Bangladesh Railway seeking all documents of the project regarding dual-gauge double-line track construction between Akhaura and Laksham and converting the existing rail line into dual-gauge.
ACC also sought information on the project regarding work variation, time extension and item-wise variation during the charges of project Directors Sagar Chakraborty, SM Liaquat Ali, Mozammel Haque, Dhirendranath Majumdar, Md Arifuzzaman, Md Ramzan Ali, Md Shahidul Islam and Chief Engineer Kamrul Ahsan, and Samsul Islam.
ACC also sent another letter to the chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) seeking information regarding allegations of corruption against the directors of Max Group and Toma Group over using low-quality construction materials through various irregularities, laundering money through opening false LC in the name of importing various machinery and embezzling money from NRB global bank in the name of Bank loans.
ACC sought information regarding all tenders, and work orders received by Toma Group and their associated company Toma Construction & Co Ltd before 2018 under the Civil Aviation Authority.
It also sought the present status of each project and other related documents including tender evaluation report, notification of award, work order and final bill. ACC Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain said a team has been formed to conduct an enquiry over allegations against the two institutions. The members of the inquiry team are working to collect the information in this regard.
It is alleged that Toma and Max groups have not completed the main work within the stipulated time in most of the cases while implementing the mega projects of the government.
They have extended the duration of the project as well as increased the cost through the slow work of the project.
Toma is jointly working on the construction of the railway line from Ramu to Gundum in Cox’s Bazar through Dohazari of railways. Although it started in 2010, this work is not finished till now.
