Hasina, Joy, Tulip embezzled $5bln from Rooppur project: Report
Ousted Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and niece Tulip Siddiq embezzled $5 billion from overpriced $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear power plant through Malaysian banks, according to report by Global Defense Corporation.
The report says:
The long-cherished dream of having Bangladesh’s nuclear power plant began to shape form when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina launched the main building construction phase in 2017.
Nuclear power plants are expected to deliver up to 20% of electricity in the not-so-distant future. The (RNPP) Rooppur Nuclear power plant is supposed to produce 2400 megawatts of electricity using two VVER units, each capable of producing 1200 MW by 2024. This surely will drastically help to solve Bangladesh’s ever-increasing electricity demand.
Beneath the glitz of media propaganda, Sheikh Hasina and her family members have benefitted from the nuclear power plant project by embezzling more than $5 billion as kickbacks to purchase Soviet-era nuclear reactors from Russian Rosatom.
The power plant is overpriced, with a whopping construction cost of $12.65 billion. Russia assisted former Prime Minister Hasina in siphoning this $5 billion to various Malaysian banks from various Russian slash funds kept in the Malaysian banks.
Corruption in construction project
Bangladesh has no prior knowledge of nuclear industry nor Bangladesh has professionals who can take care design, and construction of nuclear power plant. Yet Bangladesh signed the contract with Russia to build power plant and let Russia completely control the construction without any supervision because Sheikh Hasina and her family received $5 billion kickbacks.
However, the recent media report regarding the high price of purchasing goods for furnishing apartments at the Rooppur power plant ignited the issue from a different dimension. Now, people are beginning to raise their finger on the entire project. It surely is discomforting that it involved many top-tier institutions like the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC).
This alarming issue drew public attention so that it couldn’t remain the only departmental inquiry but reached the High Court Division. According to the Probe Committee statement, “the ministry does not have any connection with official activities, and approval or appointment of the contractors in the project.” This statement raised another question: If the ministry cannot remain responsible for its supervising functionality, then who shall take the responsibility?
This unbelievable price tag and the transpiration cost indicate a direct form of corruption of a higher level of insincerity. Corruption may emerge from unethical actions, but it is promoted by inefficiency, insincerity, unaccountability, etc. Such a weaker form of organizational management is hardly expected from any other typical government initiative, let alone an issue like a nuclear power plant. Corruption is a contagious disease; if it isn’t cured, it spreads like cancer and affects every other surrounding. If the government take this matter seriously, then it could be a potential example of our foreign patterns as an indication of both corruption and unaccountability, which later may pave the path for more prominent and larger forms of corruption because nuclear plants involve the application of new technology, which aligned with such information asymmetry that may lead to corruption. Lastly, we shall not forget how the Nuclear Industry of Bangladesh was blown up by greed and corruption.
British MP Tulip’s Kremlin Connection
Media reports show Tulip Siddiq mediated a controversial billion-dollar arms deal between Bangladesh and Russia. Under Russian assistance, she also played a key role in Bangladesh’s ongoing Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant. Tulip didn’t offer this service for free! I. In addition to the monthly ‘honorarium’ she has been receiving from her aunt, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, since January 2009, Tulip’s mother, Sheikh Rehana and several members of the ruling family dynasty in Bangladesh got a 30 percent ‘kick-back’ from the Russians and the entire amount has been secretly deposited in several offshore bank accounts.
Corruption allegations against Tulip Siddiq’s family members: Tulip’s paternal uncle, Tarique Ahmed Siddique, is the Security Advisor to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister. His wife and daughter are stakeholders in a fake company named Prochchaya Limited (Incorporation Certificate Number C-75659/09, dated March 25, 2009).
This company, in affiliation with a slash fund cheat fund company named Destiny Group, had smuggled out around $900 million to different countries, including the United Kingdom and has opened a company named Zumana Investment & Properties Limited [Incorporation Certificate Number 7417417, dated October 25, 2010] in the United Kingdom by investigating dirty money. Various newspapers claim in the UK and worldwide that Labour Party MP Tulip Siddiq has maintained discreet connections with Moscow ever since she met President Putin. Some of those recently expelled Russian diplomats even visited the house of Tulip’s mother.