Bangladesh News

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will soon file separate cases against Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia as preliminary investigations have found their involvement in illegally awarding gas field development and exploration jobs at three gas fields to Niko, causing a loss of over Tk 13,000 crore to the state.

ACC legal experts have given consent to filing of the cases against the two former prime ministers after scrutinising the evidence and charges against them and probable legal challenges to be faced once the case is filed.

In the preliminary report, the investigators have named six-eight others as the accused, including former ministers of the cabinets of Hasina and Khaleda, secretaries and officials concerned from the Prime Minister’s Offices for their involvement in the processing and finalising the deal.

The ACC has readied the cases at a time when Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina has been granted bail in another graft case and the higher court has stalled an investigation into her wealth statement.

Hasina is likely to be charged with awarding gas field development and gas field exploration jobs to Niko Resources illegally, showing a marginalised gas field as unexplored and two other new gas fields as abandoned. She will also be accused of not maintaining due bidding procedures before warding the job and thus causing a huge loss to the state.

Detained BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is likely to be charged with misusing power as she did not take any initiative even after knowing the deal’s flaws and irregularities, sources said, adding that her actions violated law and the country incurred huge financial losses at the expense of benefiting a few individuals.

According to the allegations, the Niko deal was forged in connivance with the then law minister Moudud Ahmed, state minister for energy Mosharraf Hossain and Khaleda. Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, principal secretary to Khaleda, was also involved in the process and is likely to be accused in the case, the sources said.

The ACC secretary on October 18 said the enquiry report into the allegations will be submitted by November.

ACC Deputy Director MM Sabbir Hasan investigated the part of the Niko deal prepared during the tenure of Hasina’s government and Deputy Director Mahbub Alam investigated the rest.

THE NIKO DEAL
On June 28, 1998, Niko made a proposal to Bangladesh government for developing the “marginalised” gas field at Tengratila of Chhatak and “abandoned” gas fields in Kamta and Feni.

The then energy secretary prepared a proposal for the deal, marking the gas fields as “marginalised and abandoned” and saying an agreement may be signed with Niko through Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Co Ltd (Bapex).

Hasina approved the proposal and her government prepared a draft agreement for Niko in 2001. In 2003, the then BNP-led four-party alliance government finalised the agreement.

The investigation report also mentioned that a meeting presided over by Dr SA Samad, principal secretary to the then PM Hasina, decided to formulate a policy to award the job to Niko. The then energy secretary Dr Taufiq Elahi was also present at the meeting.

Although it was decided to give the job to Niko through the Swiss tendering process, no tender was floated.

Bangladesh incurred a huge loss of about 1,200 billion cubic feet (bcf) gas (1bcf is equivalent to 10 lakh million cubic feet) in the blow-out caused by Niko’s faulty drilling at the Tengratila gas field, the investigation revealed. Each million cubic feet gas cost Tk 75.

The huge loss of gas ultimately affected power generation, fertiliser production and industries in the country.

The government did not get any compensation for the blow-out.

The Tengratila gas field was developed in the late 1950s by the then petroleum authorities and gas was produced until 1989 when it was sealed off considering the existing reserve was commercially non-viable for extraction with the technology available at that time.

Niko is the only foreign oil company to have operated in Bangladesh without any production sharing contract although under government policy an unexplored gas field should be developed through such contract if the job is awarded to a foreign company.

The investigation report also mentioned that the Chhatak gas field was given to Niko showing a reservation of 474 bcf gas against the actual reservation of 1,140 bcf.