Housing and Public Works Minister SM Rezaul Karim said his ministry or the Public Works Department (PWD) is not responsible for the corruption exposed at the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) housing project in Pabna.
"Most of the officials of the Public Works Department acted honestly, with transparency, devotion, and responsibility. But the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) events have questioned our image very seriously,” the minister said.
He said this addressing engineers at the inaugural session of the three-day annual conference of the Public Works Department at its conference room in Segunbagicha, Dhaka, on Thursday morning.
Two probe committees found evidence of Tk36.40 crore being misappropriated at the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) project.
They also found 50 people to be involved in the corruption scandal, of whom eight are Public Works Department (PWD) engineers.
The reports said as per the agreement with the housing project authorities, the contractors were intended to charge nearly Tk113.62 crore to supply furniture and electronic gadgets for several floors of four 20-storey buildings.
But the furniture and electronic gadgets supplied are worth far less, around Tk77.22, crore, about Tk36.4 crore less than what was billed.
The investigation committees also recommended proper measures to recover and deposit the “misappropriated” money in the national coffers.