United News of Bangladesh

The much-talked-about ‘pillow scam’ resurfaced on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Tarique Rahman joking that one of the unusually expensive pillows should be kept in a museum after reviewing an audit report linked to the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project. The 38 audit reports for the 2021–22 fiscal year, submitted to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, included findings on the ‘pillow scam’ linked to the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project during the previous government’s tenure. Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Md Nurul Islam presented the audit reports on various ministries and agencies to the Prime Minister at his office in the Secretariat, said Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Saleh Shibly. He said the reports also contain the investigation findings into the controversial purchase of pillows at unusually high prices. “The Prime Minister noted the matter in the report and, on a lighter note, said one of those expensive pillows should be kept in a museum,” the press secretary said. The controversy dates back to 2019, when allegations surfaced over unusually high costs in procuring furniture and household items for the Green City Housing Project under the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project. According to the audit findings, each pillow was priced at Tk 5,957, while an additional Tk 760 was charged as labour cost to carry each pillow to the flats. The report also highlighted irregularities in the purchase of other items. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the audit reports were prepared under Article 128(1) of the Constitution of Bangladesh and Section 5 of the Comptroller and Auditor General (Additional Functions) Act, 1974. CAG submits audit reports to PM As part of the process, a total of 38 compliance and performance audit reports covering 17 ministries and divisions, along with their directorates, departments, institutions and projects, were submitted to the Prime Minister before being placed in Parliament. During the meeting, the Prime Minister was briefed on key observations and recommendations highlighted in the reports.  He stressed the importance of ensuring transparency and accountability in public spending and in assessing whether development projects are achieving their intended objectives. He also underscored the need to strengthen performance audits alongside compliance audits. Officials said the audit reports will also be placed in Parliament. Cabinet Secretary Nasimul Ghani, Finance Secretary Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder and other senior officials concerned were present during the submission of the reports.  

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said the government is looking for a suitable place in the southern region to build another nuclear power plant to meet the country’s growing demand for power. “We’re looking for a place in the Southern region…it’s difficult to find hard soil there but we’re surveying various islands and different places to find a suitable one,” she said. Sheikh Hasina said this while addressing the installation programme of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) of Power unit-1 of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project. Read:Russia ships equipment for Rooppur nuclear plant She joined the programme from her official residence Gonobhaban through a videoconference. Hasina said the government has taken a decision to set up another nuclear power plant on completion of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project. “We’ll do that if we get a suitable place. My choice is to do that on the other side of the Padma River… that means the southern region of the country.” Mentioning that the government is conducting surveys to select a suitable place, she said it would not be a tough job to select a site. “If the government can build another nuclear power plant in the country, there’ll be no problem in power supply.” The Prime Minister said the government has set a target to make the country a developed one within 2041. “Already, we’ve got the status of a developing country…this is not enough.” In 2071, the Prime Minister said, the country will celebrate its 100 years of independence. “That will surely be celebrated by the new generation in a beautiful, developed, prosperous and modern technology knowledge-based country,” she said. Hasina said the government has formulated the Delta Plan 2100 so that this country never lags behind and no clutch of vultures falls upon this country ever. Read: Nuclear plant to be a big breakthrough: FM

The reactor pressure vessel (RPV) of Power unit-1 of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project, the country’s first nuclear power plant, will be installed on Sunday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate the installation work from Gonobhaban through a videoconference, official sources on Saturday. Read: Rooppur NPP Unit-1's inner containment dome installation completed Russian and Bangladeshi expert teams will install the reactor pressure vessel brought to the project site from Russia in October, 2020. The nuclear power plant, designed and built by the engineering division of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation of Russia, will consist of two such VVER-1200 reactor power units; their life cycle is expected to be 60 years, with the possible extension of service life of another 20 years. Read: Russia ships equipment for Rooppur nuclear plant The Russian design with VVER-1200 reactors, successfully implemented at Novovoronezh NPP-2, was selected for the first NPP in Bangladesh. The plant will have two power units with an electrical capacity of 1,200 MW each.

Citing unequal competition and irregularities among the 11 approved private Covid-19 testing booths in the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project area in Pabna, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) announced them closed on Tuesday. The 11 private organizations were mainly collecting samples of officials, workers of different organizations of the project and some general people of the district for testing of Covid-19. The organizations were granted permission by a private organization named DNA Solution Ltd and by the Pabna Civil Surgeon office to conduct sample tests in the project area on certain conditions. On July 18, the DGHS Director Dr Md Farid Hossain Mia sent a letter to the Pabna Civil Surgeon that said some of the organizations permitted by Dhaka based DNA solution and the Civil Surgeon Office are collecting samples from the area and taking them to test in Dhaka’s RT-PCR lab. Read: DGHS to private labs: Suspend sample collection booths outside hospitals Permission provided by private organizations  for collecting samples has been banned by the DGHS as it is creating a competition among the organizations and resulting in many irregularities, the letter said. Now these private organizations are facing a crisis as they have large dues owing from the organizations under the Rooppur project  for Covid testing with them. Many samples the organizations collected through the 11 booths were also not tested. Md Abdullah Khan, Director of one of the 11 private organizations called Famous Specialized Hospital,  said that they were the first organization who got approval and they had been collecting samples for Covid-19 tests maintaining quality and rules. “We never did any irregularity or rule breaking as our work was being monitored by the officials of the health department," he said. Read: SAF launches Covid-19 testing booth for frontline doctors If the DGHS provided them some time before issuing the orders they wouldn’t face such a big loss, he added. Meanwhile, district’s Civil Surgeon Monisor Chowdhury said none of the 11 banned organizations have their own labs to test the samples for Covid-19. They were taking the samples to Dhaka for testing which drew questions over the quality and results of the tests, and there was an environment of unhealthy competition of sample testing among them, he added. The Civil Surgeon said only those who have their own RT-PCR lab in the area would be allowed to do the work of collecting samplesfrom now on, but none of the 11 prohibited organizations did. 

The High Court on Monday ordered the authorities concerned to complete investigations into three graft cases filed over the purchase of furniture and other household items for Green City housing project under the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) Project.