Sylhet Bureau :
A pond theft incident has occurred in Sylhet Gas Field. Scrap goods worth 14 crore taka have been sold for only 2.5 crore taka. There have been allegations of involvement of gas field officials in this. Legitimate traders have not been able to submit tenders, so they have first submitted verbal and later written complaints. Now they are preparing for the case. About 5 months ago, the gas field authorities called for tenders to sell scraps from Sylhet Gas Field. These goods include generators, tubing pipes, casing pipes, car tires, electrical and electronic equipment, furniture, transformers, MS rods, MS pipes, sheet pieces, cable trays, turbine pumps, cut pieces, corrugated tin, empty steel and plastic drums, tool boxes, used lube oil. This tender was called by the General Manager of the Accounts and Finance Branch. According to the tender, December 12 was the last day for submitting tenders. The tender was opened at the TSC section of the Sylhet Gas Field head office on the same day.
Sylhet Gas Field sources said, tender was called for the sale of scrap materials in the past 8-10 years. The estimated value of this scrap material is Tk 14 crore. The highest bidder was supposed to be nominated after submitting the tender in a transparent process. But there was no such situation in the branch that submitted the tender that day. An atmosphere of fear was created by some influential local businessmen of Haripur and several groups of criminals from Sylhet city. To normalize this atmosphere of fear, the businessmen who came to submit the tender that day verbally repeatedly sought the help of the MD of the gas field and the auction convener. But they were not given that help. Businessmen willing to participate in the auction said that this atmosphere was created due to the provision of submitting tenders at only one place. There was supposed to be an opportunity to submit tenders at several places including the administrative building in Sylhet. But instead of doing that, they decided to set the place for submitting tenders at the gas field office. And that’s all the trouble. Those who went to submit tenders were not allowed to enter. Selim Ahmed, the owner of Selim Construction in Srimangal, Moulvibazar, wanted to participate in the auction. He went to submit tenders with documents including a pay order worth 5 crores. He was also not allowed to submit the tender. For this reason, he sent a complaint letter to the General Manager (MD) of Sylhet Gas Field by post last week. In the complaint, he mentioned that a schedule was purchased in the name of his company ‘Selim Construction’ for the purchase of old goods. Its money receipt number is IGZ-104-11412, dated 23.12.2024. As per the conditions mentioned in the schedule, he made a pay order from the bank as collateral. Pay Order Number- 5514345. On the day of the tender acceptance, when he went to the head office of Gas Field Limited at 11 am, some people obstructed the submission of tenders in the box where the tender acceptance box was kept.
When the matter was informed verbally to the convenor of the auction committee, the convenor assured to take legal action against the obstructers and cancel the tender. In the application, Selim mentioned that although 213 tender schedules were sold from different parts of the country, only 3 tenders were submitted by the syndicate and the submission of competitive tenders was obstructed with the aim of evading government revenue. Later, he placed an order in the name of Shahjahan Enterprise, signed by the General Manager of Sylhet Gas Field, Engineer Md. Faruk Hossain (PND), subject to payment of 2 crore 44 lakh 30 thousand taka. In the application, he requested to cancel the order given to Shahjahan Enterprise and request to take necessary measures to accept competitive tenders by inviting re-tenders.
Selim Ahmed said that the actual value of the goods being sold for 2.5 crore taka would be 14-15 crore taka. The gas field officials made a secret agreement and sold it for 2.5 crore taka. Now it is being made known to the parties. He said that a few officials are making this impossible possible in exchange for a large sum of money. He also said that he is taking legal action for this. Apart from Selim, on that day, M/s Ramim Enterprises proprietor Nachibur Rahman Nasim came to submit a tender with a pay order for 5 crore taka. But he could not submit it.
Nasim said that he also went to submit a tender for 5 crore taka. He could not submit it due to the obstacles of terrorists. The influential chairman syndicate of Haripur next to the gas field and the Siraj Group of Sylhet united and bought the goods at a low price in the name of a person named Shahjahan of Sunamganj. He said that the government is losing revenue by doing this. Similarly, Kazi Harunur Rashid of Kazi Enterprise wanted to submit a tender. He said that it was not possible to submit the tender due to the lack of an environment for submission. The traders complained that a few officials of the gas field are now rushing to make the scrap material available to the bidder. They are trying to complete all the processes as soon as possible. Although they called the current MD of Sylhet Gas Field, Abdul Jalil Pramanik, several times to talk about this, he did not respond. However, the convenor of the auction committee was the General Manager, Accounts and Finance. When they called this number, the Present GM, Tarek, received the call. He said that he did not know anything about the tender. He took charge two months ago.
