Moheshpur municipal authority has started construction work of a road in upazila headquarters but did not feel the need to float a tender invitation, which is illegal.
According to LGRD construction rules, if any government organisation does development work that involves more than Tk2 lakh, it has to publish a tender invitation.
To complete the construction of the road, stretching about 800 metres from Mahespur upazila headquaters to Hamidpur area, Tk5 lakh will be needed.
Moreover, there was nobody to supervise the construction work and so labourers have been forced to use substandard materials in the road construction, which greatly reduces the longevity of the road.
Sources at the municipality office said they had started the construction work with a quotation instead of a tender invitation, although there is no provision that permits them to do any construction work worth Tk2 lakh with only a quotation.
Despite protests from local contractors, the municipality did not stop the construction.
Locals said they had witnessed that labourers were constructing the road with substandard materials.
Labourers are using old brick chips along with the fresh building materials for the construction, they said.
During a recent visit to the project site, this correspondent found that road construction work had been started in front of a livestock office in Moheshpur that led to Hamidpur road in the municipal area.
Nur Islam, a labourer said, the executive engineer of the municipality had ordered him to start the construction work there.
He said the labourers had dug up the road and placed some new brick chips with the old ones and then compacted the road with roller machines as per the engineer's orders.
He was reluctant to provide any further details about the construction process.
When asked about the violation of government rules regarding the construction work, Mijanur Rahman, executive engineer of the municipality, said sometimes emergency work in the interest of the municipality's people can be done without tender invitations.
At one point he said they had selected Ruhul Amin as a contractor.
But Ruhul Amin could not say anything about the budget, the operation area or the name of his site. He claimed that his name had just been used there.
Some local contractors under the Moheshpur municipality, requesting anonymity, said the work done by the municipal authority was substandard in nature.
To ensure quality and road standards, the brick chips and other materials used on the roads, must be removed and fresh materials should be used as per the rules of construction work, they said.
The final thickness of the road should be at least four inches, they added.
A ward counselor of Moheshpur municipality Hazzel Haque said no approval was taken from any legal forum to start the construction work in his municipality.
The mayor of the municipality Amirul Islam Khan said the road construction work was necessary and so they had started the work on an emergency basis, using a quotation.
He said they would definitely try to ensure quality work.