Staff Reporter
General Sales Agent is popularly known as GSA working to solve all kinds of problems of air passengers and ensure passenger service.
Bangladesh Biman appoints GSA through tenders to ensure passenger service in different countries of the world. This time, influential circles are racing to appoint GSA of Biman Bangladesh Airlines in Saudi Arabia.
The state-owned company Biman Bangladesh Airlines is going to finalize all the arrangements to appoint the highest bidder company instead of appointing the lowest bidder on a flimsy pretext. This will cause the company to face financial losses of crores of taka annually.
It has been alleged that instead of appointing GSA to the lowest bidder Saudi-owned Mansur Al Mujahid Company on a flimsy pretext, the company is going to give work to Kano, a company run by Indian citizens, at a maximum rate of 3%. For this, a meeting of the tender evaluation committee was scheduled to be held on Saturday. It is known that there will be a recommendation to give work to ‘Kano’ at a 3% rate and send it to the board of directors of Biman. It is believed that the state-owned airline Biman will face financial losses of hundreds of crores of taka if the corrupt group’s preferred company ‘Kano’ is appointed as Biman’s GSA in Saudi Arabia.
One informed source said, a group led by Biman’s General Manager (Marketing) Mohammad Shamsul Karim, for some mysterious reason, is trying to appoint Kano as Biman’s GSA at a commission rate of 3%, outside the rules.
It is learned that the lowest bidder, Mansur Al Mujahid, was told not to permit work because they do not have their own GSA in at least three airlines. But this allegation is false. Because, Mansur Al Mujahid is working as the GSA of Pakistan International Airlines, Ariana Afghan Airlines, and Kazakhstan’s Scat Airlines. In addition, he has been working with a good reputation at several important airports in Saudi Arabia for a long time. In addition, they are also engaged in handling work at the seaports of Jeddah, Yambu, and Dammam. This company is even responsible for the electricity management of the entire city of Jeddah.
In this regards, a former director of Biman told the media about the GSA recruitment in Saudi Arabia, it is a very lucrative GSA. Biman sells tickets worth thousands of crores of taka every year through the GSAs in Riyadh, Medina and Jeddah. The commission comes from which is crores of taka. As a result, whenever the contract renewal time comes, a cycle becomes active. This time, among the three companies that have been initially selected, ‘Kano’ is a company run by Indian citizens.
He also said that only Mansur Al Mujahid is owned by the royal family of Saudi Arabia. Who is the GSA of several top airlines in the world. Several Bangladeshi citizens work there. Biman is in favor of giving GSA to ‘Kano’ at the highest rate by excluding such a reliable company. This will definitely give rise to a big scandal.
A responsible official of Biman said in this regard that those who visited the office of ‘Kano’ in Saudi Arabia on behalf of Biman are not satisfied themselves. Even then, how they are justifying it is mysterious! There have always been allegations of financial transactions worth crores of taka in the appointment of GSAs in the four biggest revenue-generating stations of Biman – Madinah, Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam. This time too, several Indian nationals have come to Dhaka from Saudi Arabia with that mission and started lobbying.
Meanwhile, Biman General Manager (Marketing) Mohammad Shamsul Karim denied all the allegations against him and said, “There are five members including me in the evaluation committee. As a member, how can I decide to appoint a GSA to a particular company? Moreover, the rate given by a company is a very confidential matter.” Regarding the appointment of GSA to ‘Kano’, he said, “No final decision has been made yet. The evaluation committee will scrutinize and send recommendations to the executive committee.”
A member of the evaluation committee, who did not want to be named, said, “Anyone or those who will work against the interests of Biman are corrupt.”
