Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) officials continue to take expensive overseas trips despite a government directive to curb unnecessary foreign travel, an investigation has found. 

Although government orders (GOs) routinely state that such visits are “free of cost”, tender documents show that the expenses are instead being concealed within procurement contracts – ultimately paid from public funds.

Officials have been able to travel abroad by inserting conditions into tenders, such as mandatory pre-shipment inspections or overseas “operation and maintenance” (O&M) training, which then allow costs to be bundled into the quoted price of equipment. In government paperwork, however, the trips are presented as having no financial implications for the state.

In a recent incident, a government order (GO) was issued on 11 November, citing that five officials from the Local Government Division (LGD) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) will be visiting Finland for training purposes. 

According to the document, the officials are Local Government Division’s Deputy Secretary Ziaur Rahman, Dhaka North City Corporation’s (DNCC) Secretary Mohammad Ashaduz-Zaman, Chief Waste Management Officer A B M Shamsul Alam, Superintending Engineer S M Shafiqur Rahman and Assistant Engineer Md Faridul Islam. 

They are scheduled to travel to Finland for “operation and maintenance (O&M) training” on two new landfill compactors at the manufacturer TANA’s factory.

As per the GO, all expenses will be borne by TANA and that neither the Bangladesh government nor the DNCC will incur any costs.

However, procurement documents reveal the opposite. The trip’s full cost – airfare, accommodation, meals, transport, and factory visits - has been built into the Tk26.67 crore contract. The tender was floated as “Procurement of 02 Landfill Compactors (FY25).” 

Tenderers and procurement officials confirmed that such “free” trips are routinely factored into bid prices. 

In this case, the technical specifications (of the tender) require a seven-day overseas O&M training for at least four engineers before shipment. Additional training for DNCC’s operators working at Aminbazar landfill and third-party inspections (to be arranged by the manufacturer) are also included. Accordingly, the contractor, Sohel Engineering and Construction Ltd, is arranging this Finland tour.

Officials, seeking anonymity, say this has become a common practice. GOs declare foreign visits “free of cost,” while the expenses are actually embedded in equipment prices - ultimately paid with public money. Even in the afore-mentioned case, all related costs for a seven-day factory visit in Finland have been added to the price of the two compactors procured through the tender. 

This is not a lone case. City corporations, WASA, LGED, RHD and PWD frequently insert O&M training and pre-shipment inspection (PSI) clauses in the procurement tender requiring foreign travel. Senior officials - often not directly involved with the operations of the equipment - join these tours.

Although the government has issued several orders discouraging unnecessary foreign visits, bureaucrats dodge this by showing “no government expense” in GOs while shifting the cost into tenders.

For example, in a tender – floated in 2024 – for six outdoor escalators for footbridges at Shyamoli, Mohakhali and Pragati Sarani, the contract required a five-day PSI visit abroad for one official per escalator, with all expenses included in the quoted price. Two DNCC engineers travelled to Europe under this clause on 8 August 2024. 

Contractors admit that PSI tasks often take only a day. “A product is selected and marked. The rest of the week is unofficial recreation,” said a contractor on condition of anonymity who accompanied a DNCC team to China.

Experts in the field say foreign visits could be drastically reduced by engaging globally recognised inspection agencies such as SGS, Bureau Veritas, or Intertek. Third-party inspections are already standard practice in the international procurement process, they noted. So, there is no necessity for another layer of inspection from our side. 

AKM Fazlul Karim, former Director General of CPTU, called the current practice “a clear misuse of public funds.”

“When goods are ready for shipment, third-party inspection is mandatory. So why send government officials abroad again?” he said. “The term ‘operation and maintenance training’ is being misused to bypass government restrictions on unnecessary travel. What role do high-ranking officials really have in operating machines?”

He urged the government to intervene immediately to stop this “unnecessary drainage of public money” and end the misuse of procurement clauses to justify foreign trips.

When asked about this discrepancy, DNCC Administrator Mohammad Azaz said, “LGD approves foreign tours; this question should be asked to them.”

The reporter can be reached at [email protected]