Special Correspondent:

Despite massive corruption allegations, Tabibur Rahman Talukder, controversial Project Director (PD) of the ‘Rural water supply, sanitation and hygiene project for human resource development’ in the Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) has been remained at a large that sparks widespread criticism within the concerned department and ministry.

Not only that, the ongoing process to extend the time and money of the incomplete project for one more year has grown great concern and agitation among the honest and sincere officers and employees of the department.

Insiders said, if Tabibur stays longer with the extended project, the fate of the project may face uncertainty. Besides, it may turn to safe den of corruption, bribery and irregularities.

Tabibur Rahman, who is champion in bribery, corruption and irregularities, has been awarded with another new sanitation project involving at Tk Tk 1,889 crore, which is going to be implemented with the financial assistance of the World Bank.

Partial view of Tabibur’s project work. Photo: Collected

The first project of around Tk 1,883 crore started in January 2021 and was supposed to end on December 31, 2025. But due to widespread corruption and irregularities by the PD Md. Tabibur Rahman Talukder and his associates, the project was not completed on time, sources said.

As a result, the process of extending time by another year along with increasing the amount is underway. Meanwhile, with the blessings of the first project, Tabibur has accumulated crores of Taka through irregularities and corruption. He has built houses in aristocrat areas of the capital, bought several flats, plots and lands at different places in the country.

Although, he was born in a poor family in Kazipur upazila of Sirajganj, he currently owns a six-storey house on Sadar Hospital Road in Sirajganj Municipality. He has several expensive cars.

Many people locally know him as a women greedy and marriage crazy man. It is difficult to say for sure how many wives he has at present. He has one wife, who lives in Opel Garden area in ​​Sirajganj town, who despite being a school teacher, uses an expensive Jeep. Although, Tabibur tells people that, the house on Sadar Hospital Road belongs to his brother Habib, he (Tabibur) actually owns the house himself. He also has a wife there and takes care of the house.

Luxury house of Tabibur Rahman Talukder at Sadar Hospital Road in Sirajganj town. Photo: TDS

He has two more wives in Dhaka, who live in separate houses. He owns a flat no-A2 of the House no-39 that located at the Road No. 4/A in Dhanmondi of Dhaka.

Seeking anonymity, a colleague of Tabibur said that, he got married wherever he was transferred. His target is a beautiful girl from the office or a beautiful girl from a poor family. His addiction is to get married by trapping her in love. Besides, it is rumored that, he goes to various bars for drinking almost regularly.

Sources said that, he has also flats on Iqbal Road in Mohammadpur and Gulshan. In addition, he owns a Honda CR-D luxury car worth about Tk 80 lakh, which number is Dhaka Metro-Gha 12-7367. He bought a house and a flat near Star Kabab in Dhanmondi with bribe money and bought at least ten acres of land in his home town-​​Sirajganj.

From the beginning of his career, he got involved in widespread irregularities and corruption and kept earning a lot of money. He was posted in various districts of northern region including Pabna, Bogura and Sirajganj.

Tabibur Rahman came to Dhaka in late 2020 and became the PD of the much discussed project that going on in 98 upazilas of 30 districts in eight divisions, sources said.

Of the works, 80 percent of toilets are not fit for use. Most of the toilets in the community clinic are not useful as they are far from the clinic. The pipes used for supplying water are of very poor quality. Most of them have already turned to useless state.

The allegations against him included tender manipulation, work orders with 10-20 percent contracts with contractors, paying bills for low-quality work with bribes, embezzling money by using fake bill-vouchers for project purchases, accepting bribes in outsourcing appointments and exchanging large sums of money in hiring consultant firms.

Those concerned said that, PD Md. Tabibur Rahman has misappropriated over three billions of Taka through various irregularities and corruption from this project. If he is retained in this project, the level of corruption will increase further until the project is completed.

On condition of anonymity, a senior officer said that, if the project’s money and time are extended, then he thinks it would be better to appoint someone else as PD instead of Tabibur Rahman to ensure transparency in the work.

While this correspondent tried several times to contract with him for his comment in this regard, he did not pick up the phone. Even, he did not reply of any SMS.