The beautiful streetlights of Rajshahi city have been promoted by the city corporation as one of the biggest achievements of the Mayor AHM Khairuzzaman Liton. There is not denying that their exotic design has increased the beauty of the city. Not only the city dwellers, outsiders are also seen standing with them and taking photos. They have also been praised by people across the country. But there are allegations of serious irregularities and corruption behind the procurement process of the lamps.

There is close relationship of these streetlights’ contractors and AHM Khairuzzaman Liton and his family members. And it is not limited to the corruption of this streeight purchase process. As the most influential family of Rajshahi, Liton and his family members are accused of controlling the tenders of all the government and autonomous institutions of the region. Apart from this, his family works in the background behind land grabbing and pond filling.

It has been alleged that Liton actually took up one development project after another to protect his own and his business partners' interests. Before these projects start, they silently take possession of the land of the related area. Liton and his business partners allegedly grab lands or purchase of disputed lands at a nominal price. An investigation by The Mirror Asia has obtained significant documents in this regard.

Darkness beneath the light

From the documents gathered from engineering section of the RCC, it can be seen that Tk 25 crore 57 lakh 77 thousand have been spent on the installation of lights on 4 important roads and 16 floodlights for a total length of 15 km in the city. It meansRCC has spent 1 crore 70 lakh 51 thousand 800 taka on every kilometer of road lighting. 

And there were allegations of unprecedented irregularities and corruption in the expenditure on the installation of 16 high-rise floodlights. 

In October 2020, the matter was investigated by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). An ACC team raided the city building and took away the documents related to this work. It also found some evidence of corruption in this work during the preliminary investigation. But then mysteriously all discussions on the matter stopped. On the contrary, later the accused contractor Harrow Engineering were awarded with some more road lighting job.

When Aminul Islam, Deputy Director of ACC Rajshahi Divisional Office was contacted about the matter, he said that after investigating the matter they sent the related report to their head office in Dhaka. However, when asked about what they found in the investigation, he expressed his inability to make any comment.

But sources from the ACC claims that they have found serious irregularities. But later the file went out of sight as Mr. Liton exerted his influence to pressurise people to stop the investigation process. The alleged contractor is an unofficial business partner of the Liton family, sources claim. 

According to the sources of the RCC Electricity Department, in September 2019, a tender of Tk 9 crore 29 lakh 55 thousand 360 was invited for the installation of 16 floodlights with high voltage LEDs at various intersections of the city. On September 7, a company named Harrow Engineering submitted a tender with a rate of 9 crore 7 lakh 77 thousand 777 taka. 

Astoundingly, RCC awarded the work to Harrow Engineering without retendering, even though no other firms participated. After that, a letter was sent to the ministry and the ACC, alleging corruption and irregularities in this work under the identity of 'victim contractors'. 

According to the complaint, RCC's power department awarded the work to Harrow Engineering in violation of the Public Procurement Rules (PPR) as Harrow Engineering did not have five years of work experience as per the tender terms. The bill is paid even if no documents related to payment of shipment document, LC, bill of landing, duty, tax and VAT are submitted for the electrical equipments imported from abroad.

Tenders were invited according to the company's estimate so that Harrow Engineering can get the job. According to the international market price, the total price of the whole package is 2 crore 17 lakh 93 thousand 734 taka. A tender of Tk 9 crore 29 lakh 55 thousand 360 was invited, which was thrice to four times the price of each item. And as planned, the entire work was awarded to Harrow in one single tender. The highest price of a 20 to 25 meter high mast pole made in China is 3,000 US dollars (Tk 261 thousand), the complaint claims. 

Along with this, import duty of Tk 1 lakh 59 thousand 210 as 61 percent, VAT and income tax of Tk 43 thousand 200 as 20 percent of the purchase price, maximum transportation and installation cost from the port to any place in the country is Tk 70 thousand and as per conventional rules 15 per cent of the contracting company. If the profit is added, the cost of each pole or floodlight comes down to a maximum of 5 lakh 72 thousand 515 taka. But RCC's electricity department paid Harrow Tk 32 lakh 50 thousand for each pole. This means, an additional bill of 26 lakh 77 thousand 485 taka has been given to each pole. 

The market price of 320 LED lights of 200 watt capacity used in floodlights is 15 thousand 873 taka, but the total price of 2 crore 9 lakh 60 thousand taka is mentioned in the tender. The price of each 200 watt LED is 63 thousand 800 taka and a total of 2 crore 4 lakh 16 thousand taka is paid. However, the total price of 320 LEDs at the market price is 50 lakh 79 thousand 360 taka. In this case, an additional 1 crore 58 lakh 84 thousand 640 taka was paid to the contractor. The market price of each of the 200 250 watt LEDs added to the floodlight is 19 thousand 309 taka, but in the tender, the price of each is 75 thousand taka, and the total cost is estimated at 1 crore 50 lakh taka. The total market value of 200 LEDs made by Chinese RoHS company is Tk 36 lakh 61 thousand 804, but the total bill paid to Harrow in this regard is Tk 1 crore 47 lakh 20 thousand with an additional Tk 1 crore 11 lakh 38 thousand 200. Although the market price of one unit of 63 AMP auto logic controller is 36 thousand taka, the contractor was given a bill of 11 lakh 52 thousand taka as the price of each unit of 16 AMP controller is 72 thousand taka. In this case, an additional bill of 5 lakh 76 thousand taka was paid to Harrow. Similarly, RCC billed 37 thousand 200 taka more to the contractor for the supply of 1 thousand 240 meters of cable.

Mixing Business with Politics

2013-14 to 2020-21, in these 8 fiscal years, one contractor in Rajshahi alone has received development work worth around Tk 260 crore from RCC. 

At this time, the total amount of work of all government agencies is about 431 crore taka. That means they got at least 60 percent of the total work from RCC. The name of the organization is Rithin Enterprises and its owner Tured Al Masud Rony is known to be close to the RCC Mayor and his family.

Several contractors of Rajshahi, on condition of anonymity, said that after Khairuzzaman Liton became mayor, Rony started to control the tender process of Nagar Bhawan. There is no opportunity to work there without his permission. Rony's company participates in all everything except electrical works either visibly or invisibly. To keep his business relationship up and running, recently Liton pulled strings to make Rony the General Secretary of city Juba League, the youth organization of the ruling party.

A TMA investigation into the documents of Rithin Enterprises reveals that AHM Khairuzzaman Liton formed a relationship with Tured Al Masud Rony after getting elected as the mayor for the first time in 2008. Before he was defeated in the 2013 election, Mr. Liton finalised the tender process worth Tk 20 crore for the 2013-14 fiscal year. All of them are given to Rithin Enterprises. After Liton’s defeat in his first term, Rithin Enterprises value began to decline to about 9 crores in the next financial year. 

In the fiscal year 2015-16, it further decreased to only about two and a half crore. Rithin Enterprises did not get a single work from the City Corporation in the next budget year. 

AHM Khairuzzaman Liton returned to the post of RCC Mayor after winning the election at the beginning of 2018-19 financial year. And Tured suddenly got Aladdin’s Lamp again. In the fiscal year of 2017-18, the company received about 4.5 crore takas from RCC. In the very next fiscal year, it jumped almost 14 times. After wining the 2023 Mayoral election, Liton has made Rony the most influential businessman in Rajshahi.

In the fiscal year 2018-19, the total value of the work given to Rithin Enterprises was 101 crores 39 lakhs 96 thousand 803 taka. Of this, RCC's work was 55 crore 23 lakh 77 thousand 974 taka. In the fiscal year 2019-20, the company owned has worked for a total of 83 crore 90 lakh 35 thousand 735 taka. Of this, 59 crore 99 lakh 86 thousand 630 taka was the work of Rajshahi City Corporation. In FY 2020-21, the volume of work almost doubled in all aspects. In that fiscal year, Rithin Enterprise did a total work of 174 crores 80 lakhs 86 thousand 122 taka. Out of this, 106 crore 88 lakh 51 thousand 574 taka was its work volume for Rajshahi City Corporation.

It can be seen from various documents including certificate of execution of work, receipt of bill, in these 8 financial years, Rithin Enterprise has carried out development work worth Tk 259 crore 68 lakh 69 thousand 587 in RCC. Out of this, they got work worth Tk 242 crore 34 lakh 79 thousand 328 during the tenure of Khairuzzaman Liton as mayor.

Local contractors said that Tured Al Masud Rony did not stop only at the RCC. Using his close proximity to Khairuzzaman Liton and his family, he got the work of various government agencies in Rajshahi and beyond. Rony has bagged most big local jobs including Rajshahi Development Authority (RDA), WASA, Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET). 

An analysis of Rithin Enterprises documents also corroborates this— before Mr. Liton became mayor, apart from the RCC, Rony’s work volume was 4 crore 71 lakh 76 thousand 680 taka in 2015-16 fiscal year, 8 crore 58 lakh 66 thousand 518 taka in 2016-17 fiscal year and 11 crore 97 lakh 22 thousand 207 taka in 2017-18 fiscal year in various government offices and organizations. In the fiscal year 2018-19, the value of work received jumped to 46 crore 16 lakh 18 thousand 829 taka. In the next budget year this amount was 23 crore 90 lakh 49 thousand 105 taka. In the fiscal year 2020-21, Rithin Enterprises works for 67 crores 92 lakhs 34 thousand 548 taka in other government offices and organizations except RCC.

Liton’s Little Empire— where Corruption Rules

After the floodlight controversy in 2020, Harrow Engineering got the work order of installing the spectacular butterfly lights on the 4.2 km road divider from Bilsimla to Kashianga, a road that connects Rajshahi City to Chapainawabganj. On February 11, 2021, Mayor Liton himself inaugurated this project at a cost of Tk 5 crore 22 lakhs. 

After only a month and a half, on April 4, these streetlights were destroyed by storm. Later all the lamps and poles were removed. Even then, Harrow Engineering did not stop getting road lighting work in Rajshahi city.

An analysis the data of 4 separate roads of Rajshahi including Bilsimla-Kashiadanga, it can be seen that 25 crore 57 lakh 77 thousand taka has been spent on lighting these roads. That means RCC has spent 1 crore 70 lakh 51 thousand 800 taka on every kilometer of road lighting. 1 crore 24 lakh 28 thousand 571 taka has been spent on lighting every kilometer on Bilsimla-Kashiadanga 4.2 km road. There are 174 sets of lights with poles on this road. Each set contains two LED lamps. Accordingly, 3 lakh Taka were spent per set. Among these 4 roads, the cost per set is the highest on this road.

On December 29, 2021, the lighting of 87 road lamp sets with poles was inaugurated on the 2.5 km road from Alif Lam Meem Bhata to Nader Haji intersection. It costs 2 crore 25 lakh taka. The cost of this road is 90 lakh per kilometer and 2 lakh 58 thousand 620 per set. The remaining part of this road from Nader Haji intersection to Bihas 4.7 km road has been spent on 198 sets of streetlights with poles. Here 1 crore 16 lakh 38 thousand taka has been spent on lighting per kilometer. The cost per set of streetlights is 2 lakh 76 thousand 262 taka.

The most admiring upward-facing street lamps in the style of Royal Crown were initially installed on the road from Kalpana Hall to Talaimari. Three crore 56 lakh taka has been spent on lighting this one-and-a-half-kilometer long road. There are 13 lamps on each of the 130 poles at the road divider. The distance between each pole is only 11.5 meters. Apart from this, there are 180 garden light sets in the embankment adjacent to the road. 2 crore 37 lakh 33 thousand taka has been spent on lighting every kilometer on this road. 1 lakh 14 thousand 838 taka has been spent on each set of streetlamps including garden lights.

On the other hand, in 2017, with the financial support of the Government of India, Rithin Enterprises got the work of a project to renovate the monastery and pond in Sapura area of Rajshahi metropolis. Soon after the start of this work, the company was accused of the inferior quality of its work. At one point, a part of the protection wall of the pond collapsed within a few days of the construction. At that time, the Government of India requested the RCC, the implementing authority, to maintain the quality of work. 

In the same year, the historic Miyanpara Public Library in Rajshahi was demolished and a multi-storied building was constructed by a joint venture of Rafiq Construction, Rithin Enterprises and Mim Construction. Government of India provided financial assistance to complete the work. At that time, the piling work started by demolishing the old building, but the contractor spent all the allocated money on piling. As a result, the work had to be stopped for a long time, which has restarted recently with a new tender. 

Far from taking action against the contractor, Liton awarded Rithin Enterprise with new work he took over as mayor in 2018. Amazingly, on 26 January 2020, the RCC issued a certificate of execution to Rithin Enterprises saying all the works of the unfinished public library were completed.

Khairuzzaman Liton and Ashraful Huda Titu could not be contacted despite efforts. However, Tured Al Masud Rony of Rithin Enterprises claimed that he got all the jobs on his own merit by following the rules. He denied any shred of irregularity or corruption. He alleged that people who want to ruin him and Liton's family are purposefully spreading this information.