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The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has summoned six officials of the Election Commission (EC) in connection with alleged irregularities in the procurement of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The information was disclosed through a letter signed by Md. Rakibul Hayat, Assistant Director and head of the ACC investigation team.
According to the letter, allegations have been made against former Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda and others for abuse of power, violations of government financial regulations, and procuring 150,000 substandard EVMs at prices ten times higher than the market rate without a tender process or feasibility study. This has reportedly caused a financial loss of approximately Tk 3,172 crore to the government.
The summoned officials include Md. Saiful Haque Chowdhury, Deputy Chief of the EC Secretariat; Md. Mahfuzul Haque, Assistant Chief; AHM Abdur Rahim Khan, IT System Consultant for the EC’s IDEA project; Farhad Hossen, Deputy Secretary; Farzana Akhter, System Analyst; and Muhammad Ashraf Hossen, former Senior Maintenance Engineer. They have been asked to appear at the ACC headquarters on July 2 to provide their statements regarding the allegations.
The EVMs were hurriedly procured before the 11th parliamentary election in 2018. However, they were used on a limited scale during the election. With over half of the machines becoming dysfunctional, the EC recently canceled the project.
