Grand Festival of Corruption: Adviser Asif’s Press Secretary’s Audio Goes Viral

Staff Reporter

There was a sports journalist, that Mahfuz Alam is still counting crores of taka in a span of a year. He is eating a huge commission in tender business. A share of that commission is going back to the ministry. Another scandal of Sports and Youth Advisor Asif Mahmud Sajeeb Bhuiyan has gone viral. A phone conversation of his press secretary Mahfuz Alam has gone viral.

Expatriate journalist Jawad Nirjhar has shared an audio of Mahfuz negotiating a commission for a tender. In that conversation, Mahfuz is negotiating a commission with a contractor. However, the identity of the contractor is not known in the leaked audio.

In the phone conversation, Mahfuz Alam can be heard saying, ‘I will get these signed tomorrow, now tell me what they will do tomorrow and what they will do after that?’ He said, ‘No, no, we can’t go as far as Noah (the agreement).’ What I am doing is that the advisor will sign, give fifty percent; CCGB will pass, give the remaining fifty percent. He can also be heard saying, ‘You tell them that now everything is being done in this format.’

He said, “Talking to a contractor, sitting with a third person or anyone is far from the question, meeting is even further away, but I am not talking to anyone on the phone. I am talking to you because a trust has been built with you, that is why I am talking to you.
Mahfuz Alam can be heard saying, if I sign tomorrow, can you make the payment tomorrow?”

Mahfuz Alam said, ‘If the work is confirmed, is it 3% or what? Listen, let me tell you something – DPDC is currently working on some work in Cox’s Bazar, which I have done at six percent (6%)…. One (1%) is taken by the middleman, and five (5%) is for the ministry. So these are considered above (more), brother, don’t you understand? When the work that is DPD (detailed project document), all of them are considered above (more). None of them are considered equal and DPD.

In another separate phone conversation, he can be heard saying, ‘Yes, it is happening today, I will let all this happen tonight. The day after tomorrow, I will get the NOA (contract) done…. No, no, no, so I will leave it, I will get it done after Eid. I will keep the file for now…. If the commitment is not right, you are seeing it now.

Do you have any idea what kind of activities I’m doing for you today?…After this, if you tell me these or they tell me these, is it something?’

He kept saying, ‘You have to keep your word. Secondly, I convey what you say. If you say two things, it becomes a problem, you understand?… I will get the EGP done today, but I will keep Noah hanging in the middle. You will give confirmation, then Noah. And two 1.5, two 1 percent, these will not happen, brother; 1.5 means 1.5, that’s it.’

It is clear from the conversation that Mahfuz is getting a Toyota Noah car in exchange for getting a job. In addition, he is getting a commission for each job, which he distributes to different levels of the ministry.

Mahfuz’s statement on the matter was not available. There is a stir in the sports arena over the audio leak. A former colleague of Mahfuz said, ‘The boy who used to work for 60 thousand taka salary now earns more than 6 million taka monthly. This is the change. Even for such open corruption, there is no action against them.’