Everyone who mishandled Kushtia Medical College project must be punished: Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked authorities to punish all those involved in irregularities during the construction of Kushtia Medical College and Hospital.

The prime minister also instructed the government to punish those who went into retirement following their misconduct, said Planning Minister MA Mannan.

The directive came at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council or ECNEC where the project’s Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division presented a report on the irregularities.

The meeting, chaired by Hasina via video conference from the Ganabhaban, also discussed the second amendment to the project on Tuesday.

“There is a law called the Public Demand Recovery Act or PDRA, which allows us to punish those who engaged in misconduct before retiring,” said Nasima Begum, a member of the Planning Commission’s socio-economic division.

A report submitted by IMED mentioned that the ECNEC approved the Kushtia Medical College Hospital project with a budget of Tk 2.75 billion in March 2012. Although the project was scheduled to be complete within three years, the hospital is yet to be established.

In January this year, the time limit was asked to be extended to 2023 in another ECNEC meeting, while the revised budget was proposed to be drawn up to Tk 6.82 billion.

The prime minister, who chaired that meeting, ordered an investigation into the delay and irregularities of the project.

The project’s budget was scheduled in line with the 2008 rate. The probe committee found that the project authorities delayed work orders, which multiplied the estimated costs and led to revising the budget in several phases.

The report also said that the project authorities violated financial discipline and moved away from the proposed plan by spending on smaller work sessions, which also pushed the budget up.

It also said the engineers employed by the Health Service Division and the Public Works Department changed the architectural design of the project without taking approval from the ECNEC.

TUNNEL IN THE PORT CITY

Construction work on the second channel of Chattogram’s Bangabandhu Tunnel will be completed next Friday, the planning minister said.

The construction of the first channel was completed earlier, he said, adding that they are hoping to wrap up the project ahead of its original deadline.

“The project is supposed to be completed by December 2022, but we’re done with the physical work already. We’ll finish the job way ahead of schedule and then apply some finishing touches.”

“The cost will not exceed estimates. In fact, we’ll save some money,” Mannan said.

“While speaking about another project during the meeting, the prime minister also said that donors are making offers for many of our projects. But in case we don’t get funds for any projects, we have our own huge reserves. We can use funds from there.”