Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, her son and niece ‘syphoned $5b’ from overpriced $12.65 billion Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, claims a report.
“Beneath the glitz of media propaganda, Sheikh Hasina and her family members have benefitted from the nuclear power plant project by embezzling more than $5 billion as kickbacks to purchase soviet-era nuclear reactors from Russian Rosatom,” claimed a report published by Global Defence Corp on Saturday.
Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and niece Tulip Siddiq embezzled $5 billion from overpriced $12.65 billion Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant through Malaysian Banks.
The long-cherished dream of having Bangladesh’s nuclear power plant began to take shape when the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina launched the main building construction phase in 2017.
Nuclear power plants are expected to deliver up to 20 per cent of electricity in the not-so-distant future. The Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) is supposed to produce 2,400MW of electricity using two VVER units, each capable of producing 1,200MW by 2024, the report added.
This surely will drastically help to solve Bangladesh’s ever-increasing electricity demand.
The power plant is overpriced, with a whopping construction cost of $12.65 billion. Russia assisted former prime minister Hasina in siphoning this $5 billion to various Malaysian banks from various Russian slash funds kept in the Malaysian banks.
CORRUPTION IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT
Bangladesh has no prior knowledge of the nuclear industry nor does Bangladesh have professionals who can take care of the design, and construction of nuclear power plants.
Yet Bangladesh signed a contract with Russia to build a power plant and let Russia completely control the construction without any supervision because Sheikh Hasina and her family received $5 billion kickbacks.
However, the recent media report regarding the high price of purchasing goods for furnishing apartments at the Rooppur power plant ignited the issue from a different dimension. Now, people are beginning to point their finger on the entire project.
It surely is discomforting that it involved many top-tier institutions like the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC), states the Global Defence Corp report.
This alarming issue drew public attention so that it could not remain the only departmental inquiry but reached the High Court Division.
According to a probe committee statement, “The ministry does not have any connection with official activities, and approval or appointment of the contractors in the project.”
This statement raised another question that, if the ministry cannot remain responsible for its supervising functionality, then who shall take the responsibility?
This unbelievable price tag and the transpiration cost indicate a direct form of corruption of a higher level of insincerity.
Corruption may emerge from unethical actions, but it is promoted by inefficiency, insincerity, unaccountability, etc. Such a weaker form of organisational management is hardly expected from any other typical government initiative, let alone an issue like a nuclear power plant.
Corruption is a contagious disease and if it isn’t cured it spreads like cancer and affects every other surrounding.
If the government take this matter seriously, then it could be a potential example of our foreign patterns as an indication of both corruption and unaccountability, which later may pave the path for more prominent and larger forms of corruption because nuclear plants involve the application of new technology, which aligned with such information asymmetry that may lead to corruption.
Lastly, we shall not forget how the Nuclear Industry of Bangladesh was blown up by greed and corruption.
ACC SUMMONED 33 OFFICIALS
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has summoned 33 Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project officials in connection with irregularities amounting to $64 million.
According to a notice issued by the commission on Sunday, the officials have been summoned to investigate the project’s abuse of power, irregularities, and corruption.
Social media was flooded with criticism soon after the purchase anomaly of the nuke plant housing was revealed last May.
According to media reports, the purchase prices of various items to furnish the project’s apartments for the officials and employees were unusually high compared to the market prices.
A pillow was found to have been bought for $100, while its carrying cost from the shop to the building was $10. The government formed two probe committees to investigate the fraud.
The reports found that $64 million crore was swindled in the “pillow scam” under the project for Rooppur in Pabna.
According to the media report, an electric stove costs $120, and the carrying cost from the ground floor to the top is $100. An electric iron costs $80, and the carrying cost is $50.
BBN/SS/TA