Online Report
Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has summoned six officials of the Election Commission (EC) as part of an investigation into alleged large-scale irregularities in the procurement of electronic voting machines (EVMs).
The ACC issued the summons in a letter signed by its Assistant Director and head of the inquiry team, Md Rakibul Hayat. According to the letter, the six officials have been asked to appear at the ACC headquarters on Wednesday, July 2, to provide statements regarding the allegations.
The investigation centers on accusations against former Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda and others, who are alleged to have abused their power by approving a project without conducting proper feasibility studies, bypassing tender processes, and purchasing 150,000 substandard EVMs at prices reportedly ten times higher than market value. The irregularities are believed to have caused losses of around Tk 3,172 crore to the government.
Those summoned include EC Secretariat Deputy Chief Md Saiful Haque Chowdhury, Assistant Chief Md Mahfuzul Haque, IDEA Project IT Consultant AHM Abdur Rahim Khan, Deputy Secretary (current charge) Farhad Hossain, System Analyst Farzana Akhter, and then Senior Maintenance Engineer Muhammad Ashraf Hossain.
The controversial purchase was made hastily ahead of Bangladesh’s 11th parliamentary election in 2018. However, the machines were only partially deployed during that vote, and with more than half reportedly becoming defective over time, the EC recently scrapped the project altogether.
The ACC stated it requires the statements of these officials to move forward with its probe into violations of public finance rules and potential corruption tied to the multi-billion-taka procurement.