He also dismissed the main opposition Awami League's accusation that he has involvement with the ruling BNP.

In an interview with a private television channel, the former bureaucrat said,"The government can explain the rationale behind my appointment. I think they've appointed me to the post, considering the neutrality and efficiency that I have proved in my previous services."

Different national dailies yesterday ran reports where it was alleged that Hasan Mansur in his capacity as the secretary of post and telecommunications ministry was involved in a controversial IT deal worth Tk 50 crore with a Chinese company.

Serving as the telecommunications secretary a few months ago, he was also found to have misinformed the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) regarding a vendor-sponsored overseas trip, the reports said.

"I went abroad purely on an official assignment and in the public interest. Nothing else was related to it," he said adding that a minister or a secretary alone cannot win a deal for a company.

Mansur, who was appointed as the election commissioner on last Thursday, is likely to take oath today.

He said he was not informed about his appointment beforehand. "The government did not consult me before and I only came to know about it from the newspapers on Friday," Mansur added.

Asked about the prevailing situation in the Election Commission (EC), the new entrant to the commission said, "Let me join first. I will try to address myself to the problems if any exists there."

"I have taken the assignment as a challenge. The Election Commission is doing everything for the conduct of free and fair elections and I will only contribute to those efforts," he observed.

ALLEGATIONS AGAINST HIM

According to newspaper reports, Mansur allegedly gave wrong information to the PMO regarding a vendor-sponsored overseas trip while serving as the telecommunications secretary.

He visited Spain and China to attend the '3GSM World Congress 2006' from February 13 to 15, 2006. His office had misrepresented the purpose of the trip.

The 3GSM World Congress was held exclusively in Barcelona, Spain from February 13 to 15 while in the official order for Mansur's trip China was falsely showed as the second venue of the event and he was granted five extra days (February 10 to 17).

Chinese telecoms contractor Huawei Technologies had borne the entire cost of his visit including airfare, board and lodging and daily allowances. All this was an irregular practice for a public servant, as according to the laws, one shall not use his public position for personal gains, financial or otherwise, the news reports said.

The planning ministry's Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) had officially identified the visit as a 'clear conflict of interest' as the telecoms ministry was processing two multimillion-dollar bids of Huawei at that time.

As the telecoms secretary, Mansur fronted the procurement entity then.

Of the deals, one was a $3.5-million contract for installing an optical fibre transmission link between Dhaka and Rajshahi and the other was a $3.6-million deal to supply VoIP platform to the BTTB.

The CPTU had strongly disapproved of the undue favours that Mansur had taken from Huawei. The telecoms ministry, however, ignored the objections and kept working towards having the deals approved for Huawei.

The Cabinet Purchase Committee on August 21 okayed the deal and sent those to the PMO for the prime minister's nod.