US envoy leaks corruption of BD minister

by News Desk
September 4, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1751/us-envoy-leaks-corruption-of-bd-minister

Communication minister in Bangladesh Syed Abul Hossain, who has been branded by the US ambassador in Bangladesh as a "less than honest man" in his business dealings, has questioned the basis of the WikiLeaks report. While the Bangladeshi Communication minister is visibly under local and international media's close watch, it has been learnt that, Syed Abul Hossain in 2007, resigned from the post of International Affairs Secretary and general member of Bangladesh Awami League, as he said, "I am observing that, in the name of democracy, family dynasty and autocracy is being established in Bangladesh". We are publishing the copy of that letter for the information of our readers.

"I am doubtful about such comments made by former US Ambassador to Dhaka James F Moriarty as the ministry is conducting business maintaining highest transparency and efficiency," the Bangladeshi minister said.

The Communications Minister said all the procurement decisions and documents made by the Communications Ministry under the present government were voluntarily forwarded to the Transparency International Bangladesh [TIB] to ensure transparency.

It may be mentioned here that, none of the governments or ministries in the world ever pass on any documents related to its activities to Transparency International [TI]. The Bangladeshi minister has created an instance by "voluntarily" forwarding procurement decisions and documents to TIB. Some critics smell rat in such over-enthusiasm of the minister. It may be mentioned here that Canadian authorities have already started raiding a local company for its alleged bribing the Bangladeshi minister in connection to multi-billions dollar Padma Bridge project.

According to cables leaked by whistleblower WikiLeaks, former US ambassador in Dhaka James F Moriarty branded communications minister Syed Abul Hossain as a 'less than honest' man in his business dealings. In his cable sent in February 2010, Moriarty said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was relying on the minister for the infrastructure development projects she had pledged to the people.

"The [communications] minister, who has a reputation for less-than-honest business dealings, remains focused on delivering the infrastructure projects he and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have promised to Bangladesh voters," Moriarty wrote in the summary of the message.

He said that allegations of corruption had continued to surround the communications minister.

The US ambassador, who completed his service in Bangladesh and departed on June 17, made the comment on the basis of 'other high-ranking government officials who acknowledged to the US problems with the minister's way of doing business'.

Moriarty also expressed his concern over Syed Abul Hossain's "close ties to China".

He sent the cable after he had conversed with the communications minister at a dinner party on February 3, 2010. It may be mentioned here that, the minister owns a company named Shaco Trading, which maintains closer ties with mostly Chinese companies, as the minister is known to be a "favored man of Beijing".

Though the minister expressed satisfaction with the levels of support donors planned to provide for the Padma Bridge project, which will directly link south-western Bangladesh with Dhaka and the more prosperous eastern region of the country, he complained about the Japanese International Cooperation Agency [JICA] that it was insisting on dividing the contract for the bridge into two parts. He said, the Japanese proposal to split the bridge into two structures would allow two different contractors to put blames for any problems on the other contractor.

He had told Moriarty that the proposal of JICA that pledged $500 million for the bridge was opposed by the government and other donors. According to him, the World Bank pledged US$ 1.5 billion for the bridge, the Asian Development Bank US$ 550 million and the Islamic Development Bank $130 million, primarily in soft loans.

He, however, asked the US envoy to use his good offices with Japan and US support for the World Bank and ADB to urge JICA to reconsider its stance.

Moriarty said several US firms would be interested to get the job of dredging involving the construction of the bridge.

Apart from the Padma Bridge, Abul told the US envoy that his 'two other linchpins in the infrastructure-for-elections plan' were to expand Dhaka-Mymensingh and Dhaka-Chittagong highways. He told Moriarty that he had already awarded seven contracts to the foreign firms, mainly Chinese, and three others to local firms.

The minister urged the US to support a Dhaka infrastructure project to build an elevated road and rail crossing that would be 'tangible proof of the strong US-Bangladesh relationship'.

"We need a visible USAID project in the metropolitan area," he told Moriarty.

He also described several steps to modernise the country's railway.

Syed Abul Hossain said the prime minister assigned him to develop an elevated rail system in Dhaka to ease the city's traffic crisis. JICA had expressed its interest to fund the project.

The minister also said the government had a plan to transform Bangladesh Railway into an independent, still the government-owned, entity from its current structure as a government-run enterprise.

Moriarty, in his cable, said Abul was "confident that these plans to corporatize and then perhaps privatise Bangladesh Rail would greatly improve its efficiency and quality of service".

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