ACC finds no corruption in Padma Bridge project, all suspects to be excused

The Anti Corruption Commission has found 'no proof of corruption or conspiracy’ in the Padma Bridge project and will drop the names of all suspects from the final report it will submit to court.

The ACC will submit the report of its investigations into the alleged corruption in the project any day, its Chairman Md Badiuzzaman told a press briefing on Wednesday.

He said, “The case has been documented for final report submission as the case had no merit and not enough information and witnesses were found during the investigation.”

“We did not find enough information to move forward with the case even after probing for one and a half years. That’s why we are unable to submit the chargesheet in court,” he said.

A copy of the final report will also be sent to the court, he said.

The ACC chief said, "Primary information and provable truth are not the same things. The primary information came through media reports and World Bank’s allegation. In 2011 we learned about the allegations from news media."

"Later on World Bank's request we formed a probe team. A World Bank team came to Dhaka several times to sit with us. The ACC team probed the allegations for a long time," he said.

"In 2012 we filed a case of conspiracy of corruption. Despite the World Bank's assurance we did not get enough information from them or the Canadian authorities," he said.

"Therefore, the commission has decided to drop all suspects from the case," he added.

"World Bank gave us some information but none of it gives us strong evidence of conspiracy to bribing."

“The World Bank report referred to a diary, which the Canadian court called a notebook. We perused a copy of that notebook but could not find anything to prove anyone guilty," he added.

No evidence has also been found on the corruption allegations against former communications minister Syed Abul Hossain and former state minister Abul Hasan Chowdhury, ACC Commissioner Shahabuddin Chuppu told reporters at the briefing.

After a long drawn out strife with the World Bank, the government withdrew its request for a $1.2 billion loan in the $2.9 billion project which the global lender had halted in 2012, saying it suspected conspiracies of corruption involving ministers and top government officials.

The government has always denied the allegations outright.

The lender banned the Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin for 10 years from all its projects because of its “misconduct” in relation to the Padma project.

At the urging of World Bank, ACC filed a case naming seven people. The prime suspect was former Bridges Division secretary Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan.

The six others in the case are Superintending Engineer (River training) of the Bridge Authority Kazi Mohammad Ferdous, Roads and Highways Department Executive Engineer (Bridge Construction and Maintenance Division-4) Riaz Ahmed Zaber and four SNC-Lavalin officials, Deputy Managing Director of Bangladeshi firm Engineering and Planning Consultant and Local Sub Consultant of SNC Lavalin Mohammad Mostafa, former Director of International Project Division Mohammad Ismail, former Vice-President of the International Project Division Ramesh Shah and former Vice-President and General Manager of SNC-Lavalin's Energy & Industrial Business Unit Kevin Wallace.

Bhuiyan was arrested and suspended from his job, but was later released on bail. His suspension was withdrawn in June last year and he now holds the office of the cabinet secretary.

Then the communications minister Abul Hossain, who resigned after the allegations were raised, was not named in the case. Neither was former state minister for foreign affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury.