The lives of several hundred students were jeopardised due to the alleged greed of an engineer and a contractor of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), after a four-storey school building in Netrokona was constructed without precast piling, misappropriating funds meant for the project.

The accused engineer and contractor are now dismantling the building at their own cost after admitting to the wrongdoing.

The accused are the construction contractor ‘Five Brothers’ from Paschim Ulowati, Netrokona Sadar, and upazila Engineer Md Mominul Islam of LGED. Together, they allegedly misappropriated Tk19.57 lakh, earmarked for the work.

The incident occurred during the construction of an additional classroom for Kalakona Government Primary School under the Fourth Primary Education Development Programme, Kalmakanda upazila, Netrokona. The crime came to light when locals informed the LGED Netrokona office.

According to the contract documents, the LGED engineer disbursed Tk1.32 crore out of a total contract of Tk1.36 crore, despite the construction not progressing in line with the bill amount.

On 8 October, LGED formed a three-member committee, comprising Superintending Engineer Anisul Wahab Khan, the Senior Assistant Engineer of the Quality Control Unit, and Netrokona’s Senior Assistant Engineer Rafiqul Islam, to investigate the alleged embezzlement within seven working days. However, as of Monday, the committee had yet to begin its work

The design of the school building required nine-metre-long precast piles, but the upazila engineer reportedly implemented the work with normal footing. LGED’s Netrokona District Executive Engineer reported the issue in writing to the chief engineer on 23 September.

When asked on Monday, Upazila Engineer Mominul Islam denied involvement in the theft, saying, “I was not in charge when the work was carried out. Former Upazila Engineer Shuvra Deb Chakrabarti oversaw the preliminary works, including the grade beam. I learned of the issue later, informed my higher authorities, and we are now dismantling the building.”

He added, “We are dismantling the building because we do not want to leave the fault unrectified. The contractor is also contributing. We are correcting the error as much as possible.”

Regarding the disbursement of Tk1.32 crore, he said, “I became aware of it late, and after learning of it, I informed my superiors immediately.”

Former Upazila Engineer Shuvra Deb Chakrabarti said, “I signed the contract but was not in service when the physical work began, and I did not receive any money. If I had committed a crime, why would the engineer in charge have made the payment without informing higher authorities?”

Netrokona LGED Executive Engineer Md Wahiduzzaman said, “I learned from local journalists that the building was being constructed without piling. Such a building clearly put students’ lives at risk. I immediately reported the issue to my zonal office and headquarters.”

This correspondent attempted to contact Haradhon Biswas, owner of the contracting company Five Brothers, on 27 and 28 October, but he did not respond.

Talking to the Daily Sun, Adil Mohammed Khan, president of the Bangladesh Institute of Planners, said the government should punish the perpetrators in an exemplary manner to prevent such crimes in the future.

“Those committing such crimes have a firm conviction that there is no audit of development works and they can get away with anything. In the past, officials have committed major crimes but never faced punishment. The perpetrators have no concern for the safety of students, even if an accident occurs — they are only focused on making money. Even if questions are raised about the work, they know how to manipulate top authorities,” Adil said.