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Download PDF Khaleda Zia’s younger son Arafat Rahman, detained Sunday night, had allegedly used his family clout to monopolise the outdoor advertising industry and push through controversial state contracts for hefty commissions during the tenure of BNP-led alliance government.
Between 2001 and 2006, his firm Advance Ad grabbed the city’s most lucrative advertisement spots owned by the government agencies, said sources. It bagged nearly 80 percent of Dhaka’s Tk 150-crore-a-year outdoor ad business.
Fearful of repercussions, the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) and other government agencies catered to Arafat’s whim throughout the tenure of the last BNP-led government.
A DCC official seeking anonymity said the city corporation’s advertisement cell has been closed down to get rid of the files that might implicate him in the irregularities regarding allotment of advertisement spots.
Business sources allege that for most of the time they had no option but to hire the Advance Ad, fearing that otherwise they might fall out of favour with the government.
The firm received the biggest boost during the capital’s ‘beautification’ in the lead-up to the 2005 Saarc summit. Under the facelift project, it had billboards along the road between the Zia International Airport and Bangla Motor Crossing. The stretch included some of the city’s most noticeable spots like those at Jahangir Gate, Mohakhali Rail Crossing, Bijoy Sarani, Agargaon Link Road, and Farm Gate.
Due to Arafat’s flagrant violation of government regulations, such as not paying spot-rent for the billboards on time, the DCC earned only Tk 70 lakh during the years 2004 and 2005 whereas the target revenue for the period was Tk 30 crore.
Business sources allege that Arafat pulled rank on the DCC, Roads and Highways, and Bangladesh Railway to cancel the advertisement deals with the other firms before the Saarc beautification started in late 2003.
Some firms allege that the DCC had removed all billboards from the Airport Road but later handed the spaces to Advance Ad and some small advertisement companies.
The head of one of the oldest billboard advertisement agencies told The Daily Star yesterday, “The government had promised to compensate us for the ad hoardings knocked down but we weren’t given any of the spots when they allowed billboards on the road again.”
Advance Ad charges clients as high as Tk 10 lakh per year, disregarding the government rates of Tk 50 per square foot for private property and Tk 150 per square foot for government property.
According to the rates, the firm’s income from the Airport Road alone should be around Tk 30 crore a year.
The way Advance Ad set up advertisements on the medians on Manik Mia Avenue, broke road dividers to put up billboards, and installed unipoles along railway tracks is unprecedented and suggests how he flouted all relevant regulations at will.
No one from the DCC authorities was available for comments on the matter.
According to government guidelines, all billboard advertisements should have the name of the company. But none of the billboards rented out by Advance Ad contain its name.
Despite repeated attempts, The Daily Star could not contact the Advance Ad officials for their comment on the allegations. The office was under lock and key.
CORRUPTION IN BTV
Arafat is also reported to have benefited from monopolising advertisements on Bangladesh Television (BTV).The state-owned broadcaster reportedly stretched its rules of business to allot Advanced Ad’s sister concern Ad Media an hour of the peak time advertisements, between 8:30pm and 9:30 pm.
Ad Media was also given advertisement chunks for the most popular BTV shows, for which they sold the ad rights to numerous companies.
According to BTV guidelines, it cannot allocate such a large peak time slot to a single company. But the then government high-ups leaned on the authorities to approve the Ad Media contract.
CRICKET BOARD
Arafat was the chairman of the Development Committee of Bangladesh Cricket Board. He also became a member of the board’s advisory group even though he had no previous experience.
Sources in the BCB said Arafat had used his posts for huge financial gains from renovation of the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla Stadium.
KHALEDA’S FORMER PRIVATE SECRETARY
Khaleda’s former private secretary AHM Nurul Islam in an interview published on February 30, 2007 accused Arafat of lobbying to win Global Agro Trade Private Ltd the contract to handle the Inland Container Depot (ICD).
With no experience or necessary equipment, the company was given the contract though the proposal was rejected by the purchase committee.
Nurul Islam also recalled an incident of early 2003 when Arafat visited Hong Kong with six or seven of his friends. When the head of the Bangladesh consulate could not arrange for his friends’ visas as quickly as Arafat wanted, he called right away his mother, the then PM, and demanded the consul general’s immediate dismissal.
Khaleda ordered immediate return of the official, who had served in the foreign ministry for 25 years. Although the withdrawal was cancelled, he was deprived of several promotions because of direct intervention from the government head in the later years.
June 11th, 2008 at 5:08 am
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