Staff Reporter:

Allegations have been raised that three men of Sirajganj turned the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) into a den of corruption and irregularities before joining of the incumbent Chief Engineer (routine charge) Md. Anwar Hossain.

The threes are former Chief Engineer Abdur Rashid Mia, his close associate the then Sub-Assistant Engineer Moshiul Alam and so-called Media Consultant Abu Fattah. They established an empire in LGED under the umbrella of the recently ousted Awami League government.

The much talked three persons have amassed crores of Taka through recruitment and transfer trade. Moshiul and Fattah used to work as middlemen for realizing bribe on behalf of Rashid Mia by offering jobs and promotions to others, sources said.

Abdur Rashid Mia, also man of Kazipur in Sirajganj was a leader of Bangabandhu Engineers’ Parishad during the Awami League regime. He exerted influence in the LGED with the blessing of the then Health Minister late Mohammad Nasim and his son Tanvir Shakil Joy.

Before getting post of Chief Engineer, several allegations submitted to the ACC over amassing more than Tk 300 crores illegally are still under investigation. However, he got appointment as Chief Engineer (CE) with the intervention of an invisible force in the current government and amassed more money and assets in the six months with the help of Moshiul and Fattah.

Most of the money earned by illegal means has been siphoned abroad including Singapore and Malaysia, insiders claimed.

Though, the concerned ministry discharged him from the post of Chief Engineer without extension, he is trying to come back on the post managing another evil force in exchange of about Tk 100 crores, said a reliable source.

Meanwhile, an agreement has been signed at a Gulshan office, where an investor played role as the representative of Abdur Rashid Mia. With the hope of get back the post, Rashid Mia is yet to hand over his government quarters to the concerned party. Many now seem that, if Rashid fails to get back the Chief Engineer post, he may flee the country to avert ACC action.

Just after taking responsibility as Chief Engineer (additional charge for six months) on February 4, allegation of misappropriating Tk 1600 crore raised against Rashid Mia.

ACC’s an initial investigation found that, there are 12 contracting firms in the name of his wife Fatima Zakiyah and some other close relatives. These firms received project work worth about Tk 1,200 crore in the 2021-22 Fiscal Year lonely. In comparison, other competing contracting firms received about 30-40 percent less work during that time.

An influential contractor of Sirajganj works on behalf of Rashid Mia and his wife staying behind the screen, sources said.

A secrete report of ACC revealed that, there are eight flats and three plots in Gulshan, Banani and Bashundhara residential area of the capital. He has a five storied and a seven storied building in Rajshahi. Besides, he has huge assets in and abroad including Sirajganj, Sherpur in Bogura and Dhaka.

LGED, one of the largest development agencies in the country, implements development projects worth around Tk 35,000 to Tk 40,000 crore every year. This huge budget directly relates to the country’s roads, bridges, culverts, educational institutions, office buildings and rural infrastructures.

The corruption of Rashid Mia and his associates has directly affected LGED’s projects. It is reported that, out of 57 road development projects completed in the FY 2022-23, some 14 projects collapsed or were damaged within six months due to poor quality of works.

On the other hand, LGED has recruited about 1000 manpower in various projects through the outsourcing sector in the last eight months.

Currently, more than 150 development projects are underway. Each project has an opportunity to recruit manpower through outsourcing sector. Since the beginning of this year, dozens of new projects have also been approved. About 375 people were scheduled to recruit in the climate project alone, 50 in the TULO (Town and Union Land Office) project and about 300 in the large project RUTDP.

Recruitment has already been completed in many projects, both small and large, and will continue in future.

Insiders said, Moshiul-Fattah clique had fixed the bribe rate for each post in these recruitments. The bribe rate was Tk 5 lakh for the post of Assistant Engineer, Tk 3 lakh for Deputy Assistant Engineer, Tk 2 lakh for Work Assistant, Tk 3.4 lakh for Sociologist and Tk 2 lakh for other small posts.

In this way, the Rashid-Mashiul-Fattah syndicate has embezzled crores of taka from at least 250 candidates in the last few months.

After ending of Rashid’s term, Moshiul took shelter in Sirajganj, while Fattah fled the country in the name of Umrah. Since then, the cheated candidates have been crowding around the LGED building almost every day in search of jobs. Many job seekers stand on the streets looking for Moshiul and Fattah to take back their money paid as bribe. However, the three-member syndicate is trying to come back to the LGED together. If Rashid Mia is reappointed as Chief Engineer, they will get together again, insiders said.

Some 25 persons including Moshiul Alam, also a resident of Sirajganj were promoted as Assistant Engineer from Sub-Assistant Engineer with the blessing of Rashid Mia. Recently, Moshiul has been posted as Upazila Assistant Engineer in Raiganj of Sirajganj district.

He first started working in outsourcing and later entered the GOB cadre through irregularities. He became Rashid Mia’s Personal Assistant (PA) for being a man of Sirajganj.

In 2010, with the blessings of the then Chief Engineer Wahidur Rahman and PD Kazi Khurshid Hasan, Abu Fattah, also men of Ullapara in Sirajganj entered into the LGED as a media consultant, though, there was no such post in the regular manpower structure.

Although there is a post with that name in some projects, Fattah took that opportunity and earned crores of taka by using the title.

The main focus of Abu Fattah’s corruption was the recruitment and transfer business. During the regime of Wahidur Rahman, the court ordered to make the jobs of about 6,000 employees permanent. Taking the advantage, Fattah and his cohorts developed a bribery syndicate.

At that time, more than Tk 300 crore was collected as bribe from about 3,100 people after realizing Tk 5 lakh to Tk 8 lakh per head.

The then Executive Engineer (Administration) Abdus Sattar and Assistant Engineer Zahurul Islam Mandal were also involved in the bribery dealings.

After receiving a large sum of money from here, Fattah purchased huge land in Ullapara and built multistoried house. During the time of Abdur Rashid Mia, Fattah also gave jobs to more than a hundred people through outsourcing in exchange of bribes. These appointments were completed with the help of Assistant Chief Engineer Mahbub Morshed Shaheen, sources said.

No one of the three was found for their comment, when this correspondent tried to contact with them several times. Even, they did not reply after sending several messages.

Sufferers urged the ACC to carry a fresh investigation into the allegations with the aim to ensure exemplary punishment against them.