Some 38 SoEs were handed over to private sector and government's stake in 18 companies sold since 1993 when the government launched privatisation drive to get rid of loss-making state business concerns in line with donors' advice.

The Privatisation Commission (PC) does not know whether the units are operational or not, let alone their financial condition. The very spirit of disinvestment was to make the units profitable through efficient management under private hands, not to close them down, sources said.

But there is no rule to stop buyers from keeping factories shutdown or diverting to other functions. Buyers can even sell the land to third parties for other purposes, sources said.

Sources said land is the prime target of some parties in the SoE purchase deal. There are allegations that many buyers sold the pricey land and pocketed higher amount than what they paid to the government for the purchase.

The divested 38 SoEs involved 627.77 acres of land mostly located in Dhaka, Gazipur, Narayanganj, Chittagong and Khulna, where land prices are the highest in the country.

PC Chairman Enam Ahmed Chaudhury said although a provision is there in the Privatisation Act to have a monitoring cell, the commission could not set it up due to shortage of manpower and fund.

"But good news is that the government has initiated a World Bank and Asian Development Bank-funded capacity building project to set up a cell in the commission to monitor and evaluate status of handed over SoEs. Once the project, now in Planning Commission, gets implemented, we will be able to find out their conditions," the PC chairman told The Daily Star.

"Presently we are maintaining interactions with the buyers to keep in touch with privatised SoEs. So far we found that most of the handed over government concerns are running profitably. We have also sought report from ministries concerned about the status of the former SoEs," Chaudhury said.

Of the sold out SoEs, 17 are in textiles, four in jute, two in sugar sector. Units in cold storage, rice, flour, corn mills, wood plant, oil sectors are also in the list.

The government earned Tk 127.36 crore from selling of 30 SoEs through open tender while buyers also shouldered Tk 89.86 crore bank liabilities of those units.

In compromise deal, the government also handed over eight units under textile ministry to employee co-operatives who only required taking responsibility of Tk 147.92 crore bank liabilities to get the units.

Of the 38 divested SoEs, four were handed over in 1994, three in 1995, five in 1997, two in 1998, two in 2000, nine in 2001, one in 2002, two in 2003 and 10 in 2004.

Apart from selling the SoEs, the government also sold its major shares in nine units and minor stakes in nine units to private sector management. The government earned Tk 137.58 crore from the stakes sale. The stake buyers also shouldered Tk 56.3 crore bank liabilities.

The companies where government held major stakes were, Kohinoor Chemicals, Chittagong Cement Clinker, Eagle Box and Cartoon Manufacturing, Dhaka Vegetable Oil, Van Omeran Tank Terminal, International Oil Mills, Metalex Corporation, Lira Industrial Enterprise and Ujala Match Factory.

The government also offloaded 42.33 percent stakes in Berger Paints Bangladesh and 31.66 percent in Siemens Bangladesh Ltd, which were lucrative. Government offloaded its stakes in five units in 1993, four in 2000, six in 2001 and three in 2004.