Max Group obtained Tk 300bn worth of railway work despite 'no qualification', says ACC

The Anti-Corruption Commission, or ACC, believes Max Infrastructure Limited has alone secured the contract of Tk 300 billion worth of work in Bangladesh Railway projects despite not having the necessary qualifications.

The agency said it had initially discovered evidence on the matter in the documents found during a raid at the company's office on Wednesday.

After the search, the national anti-graft agency said in a statement that it had collected documents of several projects being implemented by Max Infrastructure, a contractor company tasked with work worth at least Tk 300 billion for the railway.

These include the reconstruction of the Chinky Astana-Ashuganj rail line, the construction of the Dohazari-Cox's Bazar and the Kashiani-Gopalganj railway tracks, alongside the Akhaura-Laksam line.

After a preliminary review of the documents, the agency said that special experience was sought from the contractor in the Tk 2.99 billion Chinky Astana-Ashuganj project, alongside experiences of constructing a 50 km railway line in the last five years, leading projects worth Tk 1.1 billion with an annual turnover of Tk 400 million.

On the other hand, for the Kashiani-Gopalganj railway line construction project worth Tk 6.28 billion, the contractor was required to have two contracts for the construction of a 20 km railway line of the same nature in the past 10 years, worth Tk 3 billion along an annual turnover of Tk 3 billion in any three years.

Max single-handedly secured work on these two projects, although the company did not have the necessary experience. After reviewing the documents, ACC officials said that when Max had received the work order, their financial eligibility was not according to the terms of the contract.

The ACC statement said the investigation team initially found that Max Infrastructure Ltd, owned by Ghulam Mohammed Alomgir, was given the work order "unethically”.

In addition, documents of Max Group’s other projects, including Akhaura-Laksam and Dohazari-Cox's Bazar projects, have also been sought.

A complete “enforcement report” will be submitted to the commission after verifying and analysing the information received, the release read.

Earlier on Feb 4, Max Group Chairman Alomgir was arrested in the Shahjalal International Airport area following a case filed by the ACC for amassing wealth worth around Tk 280 million "beyond known means". He has been behind bars since then.

The anti-graft watchdog launched an investigation against him in 2023 on the charge of laundering money abroad.