ACC sues Hasina, 16 others over Meghna-Gomti bridge toll corruption
The ACC said the accused colluded to misuse government power for personal and institutional gain, causing financial loss to the state
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has filed a case against ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 16 others over allegations of irregularities, abuse of power, and embezzlement in the Meghna-Gomti bridge toll collection project.
ACC Deputy Director Aktarul Islam confirmed the matter to The Business Standard today (12 October).
According to the ACC, the accused in the case also include former ministers Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, Obaidul Quader, Anisul Haque, MA Mannan, as well as former secretaries, senior engineers of the Roads and Highways Department, and CNS Ltd Managing Director Munir Uz Zaman Chowdhury along with two directors Selina Chowdhury and Ikram Iqbal.
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The ACC said the accused colluded to misuse government power for personal and institutional gain, causing financial loss to the state.
According to an ACC investigation, in 2016, Computer Network Systems Limited (CNS Ltd) was awarded a five-year toll collection contract through direct procurement, ignoring government rules. Previous tenders were cancelled without reason, and CNS Ltd got the contract without competition.
Instead of a fixed contract, the company was allowed to take 17.75% of the total collected toll as service charge, which the ACC said violated procurement rules. CNS Ltd received Tk489.44 crore over five years. By comparison, the same work cost Tk15.58 crore from 2010 to 2015 by MBEL-ATT.
In 2022, UDC Construction Limited got a three-year contract for Tk67.54 crore, which equals about Tk112 crore for five years. Awarding the contract to CNS Ltd led to unusually high government spending.
CNS Ltd claimed to have spent Tk67.43 crore on new technology and infrastructure, but the ACC found no evidence of this. The ACC report estimates the government lost Tk309.43 crore due to the opaque contract.
