Hyundai Rotem issued a press launch on Oct. 6, claiming the allegations have been “clearly false information,” following native stories that the corporate equipped components completely different from the contract in the course of the locomotive supply course of to Bangladesh.
In accordance with native media and an Asian Growth Financial institution (ADB) report, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Fee (ACC) filed expenses on September 18 in opposition to former Railway Director Normal Shamsuzaman, former Deputy Director Normal Manjurul Alam Chowdhury, and Mohammad Hasan Mansur on expenses of fraud, embezzlement, and abuse of authority. They’re suspected of importing engines and turbines with specs that didn’t match the contract in the course of the procurement of 10 locomotives from Hyundai Rotem. Bangladeshi media reported claims that this resulted in nationwide treasury losses of roughly 3.2268 billion taka.
The venture in query was a diesel-electric locomotive procurement venture price roughly 41 billion received for 10 items, commissioned by Bangladesh Railway in Might 2018 with ADB mortgage help. Hyundai Rotem shipped core parts together with engines and AC turbines to Bangladesh on July 25, 2020.
Nevertheless, in response to some stories, the important “pre-shipment inspection” was not performed throughout this course of, and China Certification & Inspection Group (CCIC) allegedly issued certificates with out inspection. Subsequent criticism emerged that the parts have been unloaded at Chittagong Port in Bangladesh with out high quality verification.
Native media ‘Kaler Kontho,’ citing a Prime Minister’s Workplace report, reported that “Hyundai Rotem delivered engines with decrease output than contracted.” In accordance with the report, Bangladesh Railway ordered 3,000 horsepower engines, however the really delivered merchandise have been on the 2,000 horsepower stage. The generator was additionally delivered as mannequin ‘TA9-12CA9SE’ as an alternative of the ‘TA12-CA9’ specified within the contract, and the traction motor was additionally recorded as being changed with the ‘2909’ mannequin as an alternative of the ‘2909-9.’
The ADB said in its September 2023 report that “10 meter gauge (MG) diesel locomotives delivered by Korea’s Hyundai Rotem have been handed over on August 27, 2020, however the AC generator specs didn’t match the contract.” It added that “Bangladesh Railway decided this as contract non-performance and withheld 75% of the fee.”
Hyundai Rotem defined that this was “not contract non-performance however a pre-agreed change attributable to components provide points.” An organization official said, “As a consequence of difficulties in sourcing components for the American-made TA12 generator, we utilized the TA9 generator after session with Bangladesh Railway to stop supply delays, and accomplished supply below the situation of partially decreasing the contract quantity.” The official emphasised, “This incident is unrelated to our firm, and we’ve got not been concerned in any fraudulent actions.”
