The book purchase project for government medical colleges are marred by irregularities with the Directorate General of Health Services paying between double to over 15 times the market price for the medical books, according documents obtained by Bangla Tribune.
The health department paid Tk 85,500 for each copy of ‘Principal and Practice of Surgery,’ for the surgery students of Sheikh Sayera Khatun Medical College at Gopalganj although its market price is only Tk 5,500.
A total of Tk 850,000 was paid for 10 copies, which is a staggering Tk 800,000 more than the market price.
The irregularities and price discrepancies, however, isn’t limited to just one book but to all the 7,950 medical books the health department procured through two tenders for the state owned medical colleges across the country for nearly Tk 70 million.
On May 26 and 27 of this year the DGHS called in two separate tenders to purchase the medical books.
The first tender gave an estimated budget of Tk 50 million while the other one gave a budget of Tk 25.1 million. Haqqani Publishers bagged both the tenders with their bids of nearly Tk 45 million and Tk 25 million respectively.
They delivered the books to the health department after receiving the work order on Jul 19.
The government paid nearly seven times more for 95 copies of Grey’s Anatomy with each copy costing Tk 43,000.
Meanwhile, Bangla Tribune found that each copy of the book is between Tk 5,000-7,000 in the actual market.
In a spot visit to the market, Bangla Tribune found the following price discrepancies of the books:

The DGHS Medical Education and Health Manpower Development Department Deputy Program Manager Mohammad Shamim Al Mamun claimed that prior to setting the budget for the tender, he himself scrutinized the prices.

Meanwhile, the departments Line Director Md Nazmul Islam dismissed the glaring discrepancies when Bangla Tribune informed him of it.

Claiming that it was completely impossible, he said, “We followed the rules to the book during the procurement.”

“But we’ll look into it if there are discrepancies in the prices,” he added.

The department’s Deputy Director Sheikh Md Manjur Rahman echoed and said that they will look into the matter.