Cartel again ready to gobble up public fund

A section of printers in collaboration with a few textbook board high officials embezzle Tk 800 million every year by supplying low quality paper for the government's free textbook distribution programme, industry insiders have said.
The same group is conspiring again to gobble up even a bigger amount this year as the total number of books will be greater this time.
The government purchased more than 300 million copies of books from the suppliers for distribution in 2014. Out of the books, 280 million copies were printed by Bangladeshi printers and 30 million by Indian printing companies.
This year the government has planned to print more than 310 million books by spending Tk 8.0 billion.
More than 67,000 tonnes of paper are used for printing these books. Of the paper, the government supplies 20,000 tonnes for printing the secondary books amounting to 90 million copies.
The market price of 60-gm paper is Tk 72,000 per tonne. But the price of the newsprint they supply will be less by at least Tk 12,000 than that of the paper specified.
A few printing houses that mostly win the printing jobs always hold the government hostage by not supplying books in time and then supply books printed on low quality paper under pressure.
Bangladesh Mudran Shilpa Samity (BMSS), the apex body of printers in the country, submitted a letter to the prime minister on June 11 last in protest against printing and supplying of low quality books by a few printers for free distribution among the children. They fear it will tarnish their image in the event of participation in international bidding.
In the letter they mentioned that the pro-people decision of the prime minister to distribute free textbooks among the students from classes one to 10 was not being executed properly due to certain unethical practices of a few officials involved in the programme and a section of profit-monger book suppliers.
They alleged that some officials did not ensure supply of quality books by those printers as per the specification. The quality control team took illegal financial benefit openly and certified books with low quality print, binding and paper, they added. The printing orders were bagged by four to five companies taking the advantage of a faulty tender process and irregularities in work distribution, the letter said.
When asked for his comment, National Curriculum and Text Book Board (NCTB) chairman Prof Abul Kashem Miah said he was ignorant of the supply of any such low quality books as he got the charge of the NCTB in April last. Moreover, no work order had been issued yet for 2015, he added.
"We have formed six monitoring committees to check quality at various printing presses. They will submit the report to me," he said.
Regarding the irregularities and corruption at the NCTB, the chairman said it was a sheer lie about the officials at the NCTB. It was very unfortunate and objectionable.
"There is no proof that the allegations against some officials are true, rather they are very efficient officers. There are so many good people at the NCTB but people do not talk about them," said Mr Kashem.
During an investigation, this reporter found that the NCTB issued a work order for 19,450 tonnes of paper in favour of Pearl Paper and Board Mills Ltd and Gazipur Paper Mill at a cost of Tk 74,987 per tonne with which 90 million secondary school textbooks would be printed. Pearl Paper Mill supplied paper last year too and it was fined Tk 1.7 million for supplying low quality paper and delayed supply. But the NCTB later waived the amount for reason not known.
This year Pearl Paper Mill has supplied even worse quality paper at a much higher rate, sources said.
BMSS chairman Shahid Serneabat told the FE that according to findings in a test on this paper done by Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BSCIR), the paper supplied to the NCTB was neither writing paper nor white paper. It was absolutely newsprint.
He said the printers must supply books as specified by the government. Otherwise it would be difficult to compete in the international arena of printing. The association was trying to participate in bidding for international printing work from the current year as most of the printers sit idle for eight months in a year, he added.
When asked for his comment on their supply of low quality books, one of the major textbook suppliers of NCTB Abu Naser Sarker of Sarker Printing expressed his surprise at the allegation saying the government supplied the paper and their job was printing only.
"Some five printers have been contributing to the government's successful programme of book distribution for the last several years. There is a grouping in the association (BMSS). That's why some people are making allegations against us as they do not do any printing work," he said.
Another supplier SM Mohsin of Bright Printers said the NCTB monitoring team, chairman and member (text) approve the supplied books. He questioned their capacity of doing it.
"The main reason for conflict is the group wants to foil the government's successful programme," said Mr Mohsin.