PM orders report on road projects amid allegations of graft, anomalies

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FHM Humayan Kabir
The Prime Minister has ordered a detailed report on the ongoing and past road and bridge construction projects due to "massive graft and shoddy work" in some of the big-spending schemes, officials said Thursday.
Sheikh Hasina last week gave the order to the communications ministry, whose main wing, the Roads and Highways Division (RHD), implemented the projects, a senior planning ministry official told the FE.
"In the last ECNEC meeting, the PM has asked the communications ministry to submit a full list of the projects now being implemented by the RHD. She said most of the projects have massive anomalies," he said.
"The PM has expressed concern over the low quality of the roads and bridges, corruption and malpractices during the project implementation by the RHD," he added.
He said there are allegations that quality of the works has been compromised, contractors have been paid before project completion and some key procurement rules were breached in awarding the tender.
Officials said anomalies in RHD-implemented big roads and bridges dominated the last executive committee of the national economic council (ECNEC) meeting led by the prime minister.
"During the meeting, it was revealed that in an ongoing large road project the contractor has been paid fully despite the construction has not been completed," the official said.
"It is alleged that the contractor made off with the money in collusion with RHD officials."
The government allocates more than 10 per cent of its annual development expenditure to build bridges and roads ---considered the most important infrastructure to curb poverty and regional disparity.
But sources said some 20-30 per cent of the public investment in the key sector is either misused or eaten up by corrupt contractors and officials.
Surveys by the Transparency International, Bangladesh also have found that road and bridge projects are among the most graft-tainted in the country.
In the development budget for the current 2009-10 financial year, the government has allocated Tk17.98 billion for the RHD out of the total allocation of Tk 36.78 billion for the transport sector.
The RHD received Tk13.99 billion allocations for construction and maintenance of roads and bridges in the FY2009 and Tk 25.47 billion in FY2008.
Road construction is expensive and its maintenance cost is rising every year.
In the first five-year plan (1973-78), roads got some 28 per cent of total Tk 5.27 billion allocated for the transport sector. It shot up to 79 per cent in 2002-2003 when Tk 26.81 billion was spent in the entire transport sector.
The RHD, which constructs national highways and inter-district roads, has built more than 20,888km of roads since the country won independence in 1971.
The local government engineering department built the remaining 250,153km small regional roads that connect the country's thousands of growth centers such as bazaars and villages to the district towns.
The road network --- one of the largest in the developing world--- carries nearly 88 per cent of the country's total passengers, with railways and waterways carrying four and eight per cent respectively, official data showed.