The High Court has ordered the disposal of an application submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs over irregularities in the process of purchasing radio devices for the Bangladesh Police within seven days. The senior secretary of the Public Security Division of the ministry has been asked to execute the order.
The High Court bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Md Atabullah passed the order on Sunday.
Supreme Court lawyer Mintu Kumar Mondal represented Hytera Communications Corporation Limited during the hearing, while Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy represented the state.
Mintu Kumar Mandal told reporters that on August 2, 2023, the telecom division of Bangladesh Police floated two international tenders for the purchase of radio devices. Three firms had participated in the bidding. The companies are Technics Communications and Electronics Pte Ltd of Singapore, and Hytera Communications Corporation Limited and Caltta Technologies Company Limited of China.
Of the three, only Hytera Communications met the conditions of the tender. After that, it was supposed to take 20 to 25 days to complete the next process, but the tender was not settled even in 70 to 75 days.
The lawyer also said that his client later found out that the process of re-tendering was going on to facilitate an organization that failed in the earlier bidding. After highlighting various irregularities in this tender process, Hytera Communications Corporation Limited submitted a written application to the senior secretary of the Public Security Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs on December 31, seeking action.
However, the company filed the writ petition in the High Court as the application had not been settled for a long time.
According to letter, the police telecom company has been supplying substandard radio devices through irregularities and corruption for a long time in collusion with MDM Traders Limited, the local representative of Technics Communications and Electronics Pte Ltd.
But their supplied products in the latest tender failed the sample test. MDM Traders has been exclusively tendering and supplying radio devices to the police for nine years. The tender process was called in such a way that no other organization could participate.
The letter also states that MDM Traders Limited won 40 out of 41 tenders for the purchase of radio devices by the Bangladesh Police from 2015 to 2023.
