It’s found that the list of caterers for Bangladesh Railways western route includes the names of two organisations, belonging to the personal secretary of former railway minister, Mujibul Huq.
Reportedly, the names of these organisations were included at the recommendation of the former minister.
Previously, applications for caterers were asked through newspaper ads and then the experienced ones were chosen by a committee. However, this procedure was not followed this time.
There is a committee to appoint caterers for the western route and the convener of it is chief commercial officer of railway’s west zone.
The other members of the committee are, chief mechanical engineer, chief operating superintendent and others. The committee had a meeting on 8 September, 2011.
At that time five, organisations were chosen through adverts.
However, in the appointment of two caterers now, no adverts were posted. In secret, organisations belonging to Khurshi Alam, PS to former rail minister Mujibul Huq, were included.
The newly appointed caterers are: SS Enterprise and RK Caterers.
GM of railway Shahidul Islam, says: “This has been done from the ministry through the commercial department.”
The honourable minister has said that the food supplied by the existing ones is not up to the mark and therefore, the new names were added, he added.