World Bank sanctions TigerIT over Bangladesh’s national smartcard project

The World Bank has sanctioned Bangladeshi firm TigerIT and its Managing Director Ziaur Rahman alleging irregularities in getting the national smartcard project job.

The global lender, which has funded many projects in the country, has hit the company with debarment of minimum nine and a half years along with the possibility of conditional release after the end of the period.

The sanctions on Ziaur will be in place for minimum six and a half years, according to decisions taken by the World Bank Group Sanctions Board on Apr 24. 

TigerIT won the work in the smart national ID card project as the local associate of French supplier Oberthur Technologies, with which the Election Commission signed a Tk 8 billion deal under the project in 2015.

The commission cancelled the deal with Oberthur in 2017 citing the firm’s “unprofessional acts” in supplying the cards.

The EC is now going to issue the smartcards with government funds after the World Bank pulled out of the project following the cancellation of the EC’s contract with Oberthur.

State-owned company Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory is now implementing the project to provide 100 million citizens with the smart NID cards.

The World Bank cited “collusive, corrupt, and obstructive practices” by TigerIT and Ziaur in an announcement on the sanctions.

They were found "liable for engaging in a collusive scheme to stifle open competition for a Bank-financed contract” in Bangladesh, according to the announcement.

The World Bank also found them “liable for soliciting bribe payments for a Bangladeshi public official in connection with that same contract”.

TigerIT also “deliberately acted to materially impede the Bank’s investigation of the misconduct at issue in this case”, according to the announcement.

bdnews24.com called Ziaur several times for comments on the allegations brought by the World Bank, but his phone was unreachable on Tuesday.

Tapanendra Narayan Hore, a director at TigerIT, neither received bdnews24.com calls, nor did he respond to queries sent via SMS.

The EC had no relations with the Bangladeshi associate of Oberthur, the commission’s Secretary Md Alamgir told bdnews24.com

“EC has already reached a settlement with the French company. Now we are not aware of the blacklisting of that firm (TigerIT),” he added.

It is not the first time the Washington-based global lender has gone back on its funding commitments for Bangladesh.

The World Bank earlier alleged corruption in the Padma Bank project. The charges were proved wrong in a Canadian court. Bangladesh is now building the bridge with its own funds.