A group of officials of Northern Electricity Supply Company (NESCO) have allegedly been involved in altering technical of specification of a project of Asian Development Bank (ADB) to benefices a syndicate of former State Minister Nasrul Hamid.

NESCO managing director Zakiul Islam and deputy general manager (ICT) Shamim-Al-Mamun allegedly involved in ‘serious crime’ through altering technical specification to accept single source products with no financial competition, according to a letter sent to Farzana Mamtaz, secretary at Power Division.

The Mirror Asia has seen a copy of the document sent to chief advisor office for further reinvestigation into the project titled Network Infrastructure Development and Modernization of Distribution System in NESCO.

Lately in NESCO under this project another lot named, procurement of 800,000 prepaid meters financed by Asian Development Bank (ADB) also in news and its in process of cancellation because of this corrupted syndicate.

“The officials have altered technical specification and standards & totally violating PPR section 56 & 29 along with the ADB procurement guideline 2015,” read the letter.

As per published technical specifications on 1st July 2024 for 03 lot total specifications was based on Schneider Electric, Cisco, Fortinet and Dell. Specifications not only locked by single OEM but also every word & technology was setup by directly mentioning brand name ‘CISCO’ in at least twenty plus places. Nevertheless, in published tender documents there is found lots of proprietary protocols from Schneider Electric, Cisco, Fortinet and Dell were found.

The published Bid documents which were actually floated in July last year, just one month before the fall of Awami League government. The officials tried to feed the syndicate of former State Minister Nasrul Hamid Bipu connected to the companies of Occulin Tech, Beximco Computer and CSL. This syndicate is better known as 'Bipu Bhai Brothers' in power sector previously. 

“We found more than 100 plus proprietary protocols from above mentioned OEM hence qualification criteria also ‘meticulously’ planned for awarding those mentioned contractors,” read the letter.

NESCO managing director Zakiul had made ‘a very good under table’ unethical understanding with State Minister Nasrul’s syndicate and his accomplish contractors. NESCO technical operations DGM Shamim-Al-Mamun formulated the specification of tender several times in negotiation with contractors -- Beximco, Occulin Tech and CSL, sources confirmed.

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) like Cisco, Fortinet and Dell and asking direct commission of 10 percent straight for entering specific OEM specification or helping contractor to awarded NESCO projects different lots. Mamun allegedly received Tk 1 million from Occulin Tech and Tk0.5 million from Fortinet, according to the letter.

Regarding the allegations, TMA tried to reach former State Minister Nasrul Hamid for comment. However, he couldn’t reach over phone or WhatsApp.