Controversy erupts over postal dept’s MPC project
Staff Reporter :
A storm of controversy has erupted around the Postal Department’s 365-crore-taka Mail Processing and Logistics Service Center (MPC) project while journalist Zaulkarnain Saer cited a report on his verified Facebook page as reference At the center of the allegations is Shah Alam Bhuiyan, Deputy General Manager of the Directorate of Posts, accused of leading the wasteful procurement of unused equipment and mismanaging of the project—prompting growing calls for accountability from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.
According to the post, it claimed that Bhuiyan, who has been stationed at the Postal Department’s head office for the past 15 years. Despite the standard practice of transferring officers to field postings to gain operational experience, Bhuiyan reportedly remained in the central office throughout his career, a rare exception attributed to political patronage from the previous government. Bhuiyan is alleged to have played a central role in the implementation of the 365-crore-taka MPC project.
The project was marked by misallocated infrastructure—such as the shifting of the Faridpur center to Gopalganj and similar misplacements in Dinajpur, Rangpur, Kushtia, and Habiganj—which disrupted mail distribution and caused public inconvenience.
Furthermore, scanner machines and other equipment purchased at high cost under this project were reportedly never used. “Despite the project failing to achieve its stated goals especially the crucial automation component Bhuiyan was reportedly assigned to another new project in September 2024, worth Tk 42 crore, focused on domestic mail monitoring,” Saer added. Shah Alam Bhuiyan told The New Nation that recently, a Facebook post mentioned my name and designation in a manner that deeply embarrassed and saddened me as a responsible government officer.
“While the public certainly has the right to raise questions about government projects, many of the misunderstandings of that Facebook post could have been clarified more accurately, if the individual reached out to me or my department before publishing such an unverified statement,” he said.
“The project in question was completed three years ago, during which I served as the Assistant Project Director (APD). Assistant Project officers are appointed only after a project receives government approval. The scope of the work and product buying plans are outlined before project implementation, which is finalized before any PD, DPD, APD or other officers are appointed. An APD has no administrative or financial decision-making authority,” he said.
He added, MPC was implemented through the Bangladesh Navy, specifically executed by Dockyard and Engineering Works Ltd., as outlined in the DPP.
“The project has successfully undergone the audit process with no objections pending, also the Project Completion Report (PCR) has been formally finalized,” he said.
Shah Alam said that through the MPC project, postal tracking services “Trace & Track” were introduced.
Currently, 70,000–80,000 items are processed daily through a centralized digital system. So far, over 48.2 million items have been issued using this software across the country. At present, 792 government and private institutions use this software to send bulk mail.
As a result of this implementation, Bangladesh improved its position by 51 places in an international postal ranking last year, a fact widely reported in national media.
“For the past three years, I have been working on monitoring the Domestic Mail Software (DMS) at the central level of the postal department, which is used nationwide.
I have been serving in this position based on my technical competence and past experience in similar projects. For this reason I have again been appointed Deputy Project Director, in a follow-up phase of the original project,” he said.
I respect the awareness and patriotism of the journalist who raised this issue. d nor answered- instead, they were deleted or hidden, which only increases confusion,” he said.
“Lastly, if there are any doubts or concerns about this, I or my department would be more than willing to provide adequate documentation and explanation,” he said.
