Kamran Reza Chowdhury
bdnews24.com Senior Correspondent
Dhaka, June 29 (bdnews24.com)—A former shipping secretary on Monday confessed to irregularities in awarding a container handling deal to a firm on former caretaker adviser M A Matin's last day in office.
Sheikh A K Motahar Hossain made the confession at Monday's meeting of the parliamentary probe committee, said its head Shah Alam.
According to Alam, Hossain said he was "under pressure" from Matin to award the contract of container handling work in Chittagong port to Ishaq Brothers which had no prior experience, on Jan 6, Matin's the last day in office as adviser.
"The secretary at our meeting has given a written statement to the probe committee saying there were some irregularities in the process," said Alam.
"I made some faults in good faith.
"Besides, I was under pressure from adviser M A Matin," the chairman quoted Hossain as saying.
Matin earlier at a press conference denied wrongdoing after the parliamentary standing committee on shipping ministry on May 27 formed a four-member committee to investigate the alleged corruption.
Matin was the head of the corruption-busting body formed by the military-installed caretaker government after the declaration of the state of emergency on Jan 11, 2007.
Awami League's Shamsul Haq Chowdhury and Nazrul Islam and the BNP's Mostofa Kamal Pasha are the other members of the four-member probe body.
The standing committee found that Matin had allegedly arranged a board meeting of the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) in the afternoon of Jan 5 to evaluate the tender committee's report.
The CPA initiated the file to award the contract within 24 hours to Ishaq Brothers after the meeting and couriered it to Dhaka by air, the committee said.
The file was accepted on Jan 6 morning and the same was sent to Chittagong Port Authority for necessary actions after the adviser had signed it, it said.
The standing committee said the contract was awarded when the new government was taking oath at the Bangabhaban.
The file reached Chittagong in the afternoon of January 6 and the CPA awarded the works to Ishaq Brothers at 9pm .
"No board meeting took place, but we had to write that board meeting took place," the chairman quoted the secretary Hossain, now serving as a member of the Privatisation Commission, as saying.
A senior assistant secretary at the shipping ministry, Sharif Md Masud, who initiated the file, also turned up before probe body.
"Secretary Sir pressed me so much that I had to do it.
"He did everything but stopped just short of assaulting me physically," Shah Alam quoted Masud as telling the probe body in presence of Hossain.
"We will meet again in the first week of July and fix the date for summoning adviser M A Matin," said Alam.
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