ACC approves case against ex-officials of postal department

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Tuesday approved the filing of a case against former director general of the Postal Department Sudhangshu Shekhar Bhadra and Deputy Postmaster General Mostaq Ahmed on charges of irregularities and corruption in government procurement.

The case will be filed by an ACC assistant director at the Dhaka Coordinated Office, ACC-1. The allegations centre on Bhadra and Ahmed, who served as project director and deputy project director, respectively, for the “Post e-Center for Rural Community” project, ACC spokesman Aktarul Islam confirmed.

The two officials are accused of misappropriating over Tk 15 crore during the procurement of 500 HPE Servers and UPS units. Despite the significant expenditure, the equipment was never utilised, leading to a loss of public funds.

An investigation conducted by the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology in 2017, supported by witness testimonies, revealed that contracts for purchasing the servers, UPS units, and other electronic equipment were made with the government-owned telephone industry.

The equipment was intended for distribution to post offices at the district and upazila levels.

A three-member investigation team, led by Additional Secretary (Telecom) Muhibur Rahman, was formed to probe the allegations of waste and embezzlement. The team included members from the Department of Posts and Telecommunications.

The investigation team conducted random inspections of post offices and verified stock registers. They found that the project, completed in June 2017, had significant discrepancies. The supply invoices indicated that some goods were delivered nearly two years after the project’s official completion.

According to the investigation, the responsible employees, including the concerned postmasters, cited a lack of training and knowledge on how to operate the equipment as the reason for it remaining unused.

There was also no evidence of any instructions from the directorate of Posts on the intended use of the machines, rendering them effectively useless.

The report further highlighted that despite Tk 6 crore being allocated for training purposes, no training sessions were conducted.

The investigation concluded that purchasing the servers without developing the necessary skilled manpower primarily benefited the supplier organisation, violating contractual obligations.