The Anti-Corruption Commission has requested the foreign ministry to collect the Canadian court verdict in the Niko bribery case through the Bangladesh mission.
The commission on June 27 appointed an 'enquiry officer' to look into the allegation against former BNP state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain that he had been bribed by the Canadian oil company Niko Resources Limited so that the company could be exempted from giving compensation for the damage caused by the explosion that took place in the Tengratila gas field in Sylhet on January 7 and June 24, 2005.
The commission had made the decision in line with the verdict delivered by the Alberta Court on June 24 that had fined the company nearly $9.5 million for bribing the state minister.
'We have requested the ministry on several occasions to get the documents but the ministry has not yet collected the documents,' the commission chairman, Ghulam Rahman, told New Age on Tuesday.
He, however, said that there was no reason for the Canadian authorities to provide Bangladesh with the documents.
Ghulam also said that the commission would provide the foreign ministry with the money that would be spent on collecting the documents.
The Bangladesh mission is in touch with the Canadian authorities to get the Niko case documents, a foreign ministry official said.
The law minister, Shafique Ahmed, who is scheduled to visit Canada on October 8, told New Age on Monday that Mosharraf's matter might be discussed if the Bangladesh mission showed interest in this regard.
According to a source to the commission, the enquiry officer, Shaidur Rahman, who is also an assistant director at the commission, had sent at least three letters to the foreign ministry requesting steps to collect the documents, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation report, Alberta Court of Queen's Bench verdict and the Niko's confession in the court about the crime.
The latest commission letter, addressed to the foreign secretary and issued on Tuesday, said that the ministry was again requested to expeditiously collect the documents which are needed to dispose of the complaint filed against Mosharraf.
Calgary-based oil company Niko Resources on June 24 agreed to pay nearly $9.5 million in fines and penalties after admitting in the Alberta Court that it had bribed Mosharraf Hossain.
According to a report published on June 24 by a Canadian daily newspaper, the Globe and Mail, the company accepted charges of providing Mosharraf Hossain with a car and trips to Canada and the United States to escape from giving compensation for the damage caused by the explosion that took place in the Tengratilla gas field in Sylhet in 2005.
Mosharraf resigned on June 18, 2005 after the media in Bangladesh revealed that Niko had given him a Toyota Land Cruiser-Signus 2005.
When asked, Mosharraf, however, brushed aside the allegation levelled against him and termed the verdict of the Canadian court fabricated.
The Globe and Mail report said that Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice Scott Brooker said that the bribery 'was an embarrassment to all Canadians' and 'a dark stain on Calgary's reputation' as he passed the sentence that had already been agreed to by prosecutors and the company.
The report said that for several years, a team of Royal Canadian Mounted Police, known as the force's international anti-corruption unit, had investigated the company after the arrests of several Bangladeshi politicians on corruption charges by authorities in Dhaka during the immediate-past military-backed interim government in 2007.
The commission on December 9, 2007 sued the two former prime ministers, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, who were then detained for alleged corruption in signing contracts with Niko showing an undiscovered gas field as marginal which caused the state to incur Tk 23,630.50 crore in losses.
Three former ministers, five retired bureaucrats and a Niko official were also accused.
Hasina was implicated in the case filed by the commission's deputy director MM Shabbir Hasan with the Tejgaon police for causing a loss of Tk 13,630.50 crore.
Her chief secretary SA Samad, former state minister for energy in her cabinet Rafiqul Islam, former energy secretaries Tawfiq Elahi Chowdhury and M Akmal Hossain, the then Petrobangla chairman Mosharraf Hossain and Niko's South Asia vice-president Quashem Sharif were also accused of the same charges.
Khaleda was sued for causing a loss of Tk 10,000 crore. Former law minister Moudud Ahmed and former state minister for energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain in her cabinet, the then acting energy secretary Khandaker Shahidul Islam and Quashem Sharif of Niko were the other accused.
The High Court on March 11, 2010 quashed the charges against Hasina while it earlier stayed the trial against all others.
source : New Age
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