Widespread anomalies in wash block project

S A Shofiee, Sylhet :

There have been allegations of various irregularities and corruption in the implementation of the wash block construction project worth about 7 crore taka in 45 primary schools in 8 unions in Osmaninagar. There are many allegations including handing over the work without completing it, using low-quality construction materials, defects in the construction work and leaving the work for a long time. Even though there are widespread irregularities in such a big government project at the upazila level, no one seems to notice.
According to sources from the Sylhet District Public Health Office, under PEDP-4, four contracting organizations, namely Sonali Syndicate (Package No. 1235), M/s MEP ATM JB (Package No. 1219), Setu Enterprise (Package No. 1218) and Md. Sadekur Rahman (Package No. 2022), were awarded the work of constructing wash blocks in 45 schools in Osmaninagar for students in 4 separate packages for the financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24. But even though the listed contractors got the work, they were not able to provide any specific information about the project. When the Upazila Public Health Engineer’s office was visited for primary information collection, they expressed their inability to provide information. Almost the same situation was seen when they went to the District Public Health Engineer’s office. Although they were annoyed and gave some information, the progress report of the work was given about 4 to 5 months ago. Information was not given about the abandoned work of the improvement toilet. After visiting the schools and talking to the heads of the institutions, it was learned that the construction of wash blocks has been done at zero quota or partially. Extremely inconsistent information was found in the government office documents regarding them. The progress of the wash block work of several schools that have not been completed has been mentioned as 50 to 75 percent. Contrary to such bizarre progress reports, most of the money has been withdrawn from the allocated work. No one from the upazila or district office was interested in talking about such issues. Even the officials do not want to talk to journalists.
The investigation revealed that 15 of the 20 wash block works in the Sonali Syndicate package are being constructed in various primary educational institutions of Osmaninagar. Although the project work was supposed to be completed in May this year, work has not started in many schools. Although the work has not started, the progress report of the Upazila Public Health Office mentions that the construction of wash blocks in some schools has been completed by 50 to 75 percent. Besides, the progress of the wash blocks that have been completed by 20 to 30 percent is shown as 80 to 90 percent. By submitting such fabricated information, a bill of 1 crore 75 lakh 33 thousand taka has been raised for the project, which is about 55 percent of the total allocation.
Mohammad Mubarak Ali Government Primary School Headmaster Debashish Acharya said that the work of constructing the school’s wash block has not started yet. Despite contacting the Public Health Engineering Office many times, no results have been received.