The Anti-Corruption Commission has submitted a supplementary charge sheet against 22 people, including former Bangladesh Bank governor Fazle Kabir and former chair of the board of directors of Biman Bangladesh Airlines retired Air Marshal Jamal Uddin Ahmed, over corruption in leasing two Egyptian aircraft, which incurred losses of Tk 1,161 crore.

ACC deputy director Mortaja Al Mahmud submitted the fresh charge sheet to the Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge court accusing the 22 people, including seven new accused, in the case on June 18.


Asked, ACC deputy director for public relations Aktarul Islam confirmed the information to the New Age.

The seven newly accused are then Biman board chair Jamal Uddin, former Finance Division secretary and then Biman board director Fazle Kabir, then Biman board directors Khorshed Alam Chowdhury, retired Justice AFM Mesbah Uddin, Air Vice-Marshal Abu Esrar, Major General Abul Hossain, and Dhaka University Professor Iqbal Ahmed.

The other accused are Ishrat Ahmed, former Biman director (flight operations), Md Shafiqul Alam Siddique, former Biman deputy chief engineer, Shahid Uddin Mohmmad Hanif, former Biman principal engineer (services and audit), Debesh Chowdhury, former Biman principal engineer, Golam Sarwar, former inspector of aircraft and currently airworthiness consultant at the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, Md Sadequl Islam Bhuiyan, former Biman aircraft mechanic and now engineer, Sharif Ruhul Quddus, Biman principal system engineer, Md Shahjahan, former Biman deputy chief engineer, Md Zahid Hossain, Biman engineer, Mohammad Shafiul Azam, assistant director at CAAB, Dewan Rashed Uddin, assistant director at CAAB, Hiralal Chakrabarty, Biman engineer, Ashoke Kumar Sardar, Biman principal system engineer, Md Lutfar Rahman, Biman engineer, Md Abdul Kadir, former assistant director and now deputy director at CAAB.

In May, 2024, the ACC submitted the first charge sheet against 16 people, including Kevin John Steele, former managing director and chief executive officer of Biman, following approval of the commission on May 9, 2024.

The ACC, however, did not name Kevin John Steele as an accused in the supplementary charge sheet due to his death.

On February 6, 2023, the ACC filed a case with its Integrated District Office in Dhaka-1 against 23 Biman and CAAB officials on charges of causing financial damage to the national flag carrier.

The commission, however, did not accuse any person from the Biman high management in that case, drawing criticism.

According to the case, the accused in collusion with each other made Biman to suffer the huge loss of Tk 1,161 crore by leasing two Boeing 777-200 ER aircraft from Egypt.

According to the case, the two Egyptian aircraft were leased in for five years in 2014, but after operating for only 11 months, the two aircraft went and remained dysfunctional between February and August 2015 due to engine problems.

Another four engines were also leased from Egypt Air to keep the planes operational, but those, too, ceased to function.

The Biman and aviation officials wasted state resources through irregularities in all areas starting with the tender process.

The ACC initiated an inquiry into the matter following a recommendation from the parliamentary standing committee on the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism in April 2022.

The case statement further mentioned that the Biman board of directors and managing director decided to lease in the B777 aircraft in their meeting.

On September 11, 2013, Biman issued a circular inviting tender for aircraft leasing. Four bidders – Jesco Aviation of the USA, Euro Atlantic of Portugal, Standard Chartered of London, and Egypt Air Holding Co of Egypt – took part in the tender.

According to the ACC complaint, Egypt Air was considered the first-lowest and Standard Chartered the second-lowest bidder.

It said that among these two, Egypt Air had Pratt & Whitney engine, which was very old and weak, whose spare parts were very difficult to find while Standard Chartered had Trent engine which was much better than Egypt Air.

Since Standard Chartered was a renowned company in the world and the immediate lowest bidder, there was room for negotiation, but the scope was ignored, found the ACC primary inquiry.

Moreover, Standard Chartered planes were running on Singapore Airlines while the Egypt Air planes were lying unused for seven months during the period mentioned.

‘Despite the differences, Biman Bangladesh Airlines decided to go for leasing the Egypt Air planes,’ according to the complaint.

As per the tender, the aircraft engines/auxiliary power units should have at least 4,000 cycles remaining but of the two leased aircraft one engine -- MSN 32629 -- had 3,615 cycles remaining and the other engine -- MSN 32630 -- had 2,100 cycles remaining, which was completely against the conditions mentioned in the tender.



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