Irregularities galore in MRP project
PMO asks for action against accused firm owners
DEEPAK ACHARJEE
The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) has asked the home ministry to take stern action against two businessmen for irregularities, corruption and their audacious behaviour. The businessmenAhsan Habib and Nur A Alam Chowdhuryare owners of a local company, DATAEDGE.
This company is involved in the machine readable passport (MRP) and machine readable visa (MRV) project, being implemented by the Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP), sources in the PMO and the home ministry said. A letter, signed by PMO director Farid Ahmed and sent to the senior secretary of the home ministry, also directed that the company be blacklisted and legal action be taken against it.
Action should be taken against Ahsan Habib and Nur A Alam Chowdhury after investigating their income-tax returns and movable and immovable properties, it said.
According to the letter, DATAEDGE collected payment for a bill of Tk. 3,805,976 twice (on May 7 and September 19, 2012) for providing a connectivity at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. When the matter was noticed on July 31, 2015, the DATAEDGE authorities were asked to return the extra amount taken to the authorities concerned.
The company did not supply the required equipment as per the contract, showing utter disregard. It also supplied
fewer items than it was supposed to, said the letter.
DATAEDGE supplied 277 routers (Type-B) instead of the required 313, 341 switches (Type-C) instead of the required 351, and 167 servers instead of the required 177, though they received full payment, the letter added.
In violation of the contract, DATAEDGE supplied poor-quality equipment, causing severe problems that led to sufferings of the people.
DATAEDGE supplied used Cat-5e and Cat-6 cable at
regional passport offices (RPO), instead of Cat-6e, the letter further said.
Because of the supply of poor-quality Cat-6 cable, instead of Cat-6e, and not providing Alpha and Beta test report of software solution for MRPs in time, the passport authorities are yet to resolve problems regarding fingerprint, the letter claimed.
According to the letter, the company also failed to complete the work in time, which resulted in losses and increased sufferings of the public and the passport authorities.
The PMOs letter claimed that DATAEDGE owners Ahsan Habib and Nur A Alam Chowdhury were trying to grab the project work in the name of their mother organisation, the PWPW, a Polish company.
The letter also said the authorities concerned asked the PWPW/ DATAEDGE to provide the sources code to the passport department, but they are yet to do so.
Talking to The Independent, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that violating tender norms, the DATAEDGE authorities supplied old and out-of-order equipment, resulting in hampered enrolment process of issuing MRPs to expatriate Bangladeshis in Malaysia. Some bills of DATAEDGE were not paid because of its malpractice, he added.
The minister said some officials of the passport department and the authorities of DATAEDGE were involved in the malpractice.
Kamal, however, told this correspondent that stern action will be taken against DATAEDGE after receiving the opinion of the passport department.
When contacted, the director of DATAEDGE, Ahsan Habib, admitted that they had to adjust payments for submitting the same bill twice for providing a connectivity at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. He also admitted that work was delayed. As of October 31, 1.50 crore MRPs have been issued. All Bangladesh missions abroad have introduced MRPs after these were introduced on April 1, 2010, to speed up clearance procedures and enhance travellers security.
