Advisory: Updated version with comments from Mahmood Hasan Mansur and slightly recast
Abu Saeed Khan
BDNEWS Correspondent
Dhaka, Sep 1 (BDNEWS) – Mahmood Hasan Mansur, the person named the fourth Election Commissioner, was once strongly reprimanded by a government department for availing undue favours.
The new Election Commissioner-select Mahmood Hasan Mansur's name is recorded in a controversial IT-related deal worth TK. 50 crore with a Chinese company.
Mansur was also found to have misinformed the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) regarding a vendor-sponsored overseas trip while serving as telecoms secretary a few months ago.
According to sources, Mansur visited Spain and China to attend the '3GSM World Congress 2006' from February 13 to 15, 2006. In this case his office had grossly fabricated the purpose of this trip, as the 3GSM World Congress was actually held in Barcelona from February 13 to 15, 2006.
Mansur's Government Order (GO) for this trip had however, provisioned five extra days (February 10 to 17) and tagged China as the fictitious second venue of the event, which was in totality held in Spain.
As the PMO approved the trip, Mahmood Hasan Mansur, had misinformed the PMO regarding the objectives of his visit. Moreover, his airfare, hotel and daily cash allowances were paid by the Chinese telecoms contractor Huawei Technologies, which was also an irregular act for a civil servant.
The Planning Ministry's Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) had officially identified the visit a 'clear conflict of interest' because, the telecoms ministry was processing two multimillion-dollar bids of Huawei at the time, and Mahmood Hasan Mansur, being the telecoms secretary, was the head of the procurement entity.
Mansur, when approached by bdnews24.com Friday night, admitted to have been aware of the objections. He has however his own interpretation of the affair, but would not elaborate.
"A Secretary doesn't travel abroad for procurement. It's the job of the relevant corporation (BTTB in this case) officials. My China trip was for a different purpose."
One of the deals was a Tk. 24 crore 50 lakh (US$3.5 million) contract for installing an optical fibre transmission link between Dhaka and Rajshahi and the other, a Tk. 25 crore 20 lakh ($3.6 million) deal, to supply VoIP platforms to the BTTB.
The CPTU repeatedly raised strong objections to such an undue favour that Mansur had availed from Huawei. The telecoms ministry however, brushed aside the CPTU's red flag and processed both the deals in favour of Huawei.
On August 21, the cabinet purchase committee approved these deals and forwarded them for the PM's approval. The PMO was reportedly reluctant to give final approval to the two controversial procurements. The PM, however, seems to have felt comfortable in rewarding the dealmaker with the Election Commissioner's job.
Hasan Mansur's appointment as an EC member was approved by the PM Thursday evening. The file was sent to the Bangabhaban for the approval of the president the same night. Mansur might take oath on Sunday.
Opposition political leaders have already objected to his selection, calling it an arbitrary decision by the government.
BDNEWS/2114 hrs
