Rooppur pillow scandal
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In 2019, newspapers and netizens of Bangladesh alleged that an excess of ৳26 crore (equivalent to ৳34 crore or US$2.8 million in 2023) was spent on the construction of residential areas for Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, which is Bangladesh's first nuclear power plant. The allegations and further events became popularly known as the Rooppur pillow scandal in the country. In December 2019, the Anti Corruption Commission arrested 13 people for corruption and the matter remains sub judice.[1][2]
In 2016, ground preparation work of the nuclear power plant at Rooppur commenced. The Russian government would fund the 90 percent of the $12.65 billion contract through loan. The two units generating 2.4 GWe are planned to be operational in 2023 and 2024. Russian corporation Rosatom will operate the units for the first year before Bangladeshi operators take over. Russia will supply the nuclear fuel and retrieve spent nuclear fuel.[3]
Scandal
The documents of the housing project, called Green City, were published in May 2019, and excessive prices listed in the documents prompted allegations of corruption. In 2019, the Bangladesh Citizen Council's convener priced an average pillow as costing from ৳250 (equivalent to ৳330 or US$2.70 in 2023) to ৳300 (equivalent to ৳400 or US$3.30 in 2023).[4] But the documented price of each pillow was ৳5957 (US$49), approximately 20 times the market value. An exorbitant amount of ৳931 (US$7.70) was documented as the cost of transportation per pillow to the housing complex. Cots were priced at ৳43357 (US$360) and dining table sets were documented to be of ৳114674 (US$940).[2] According to the ministry's expenditure policy, the central authority must approve purchases above ৳30 crore (US$2.5 million). To circumvent this, the purchase of ৳30 crore was split into five parts. Three contracting companies were hired to purchase the products. Among these, the goods supplied by Sajin Enterprise were of low quality. Media outlets including Prothom Alo and Pabna Samachar reported that Golam Faruk Khandakar Prince, MP of the area, was involved with this organization. Another contractor, Majid Sons, was reported to have been negligent in the supply of construction products.[1][5]