The Public Works Department has served termination notices to GK Shamim’s construction firm GKB & Company Pvt Limited in a move to cancel the contracts signed with the company for implementing 15 large government projects.

Construction works of these projects have not seen any progress following the arrest of GK Shamim in September.

Of the 15 projects, 10 were being implemented by GKB & Company individually while the rest under joint ventures with other firms.

Top PWD officials informed this at a meeting with the parliamentary standing committee on housing and public works yesterday. 

The PWD high officials also informed the parliamentary watchdog that they have recommended that the government re-activates bank accounts of five partner organisations which, along with GKB and Company, were tasked to implement 37 other development projects.

PWD Chief Engineer Md Shahadat Hossain, who was present at the meeting, told these to The Daily Star.

Rab arrested Shamim, 50, a top government-listed contractor and known to be a Jubo League leader, in connection with extortion and tender manipulation.

Rab during its raid at his home and office seized eight firearms, a huge amount of ammunition, Fixed Deposit Receipt (FDR) worth Tk 165 crore, around Tk 1.8 crore in cash, a stash of US and Singaporean dollars, and some foreign liquor, officials said. 

We asked GKB & Company why the contracts of 15 construction projects would not be cancelled, said Shahadat, adding that the PWD would decide the next course of action after getting a reply from the firm.

Narayan Chandra Chanda, a ruling AL MP and a member of the House watchdog, said the committee had asked the Ministry of Housing and Public Works to resume works of the projects, which involve GK Shamim’s firm, by floating fresh tenders and complete the projects as soon as possible.

“Otherwise, the government may earn a bad name for the delay in completing those development projects,” he also said.  

Shamim’s firm was involved in several government construction projects, including the Rab headquarters, a 20-storey building at Bangladesh Secretariat, Hill Tracts Complex at Baily Road and a couple of government residential quarter buildings in Azimpur, official sources said.

GKB and Company (Pvt) Limited was tasked with implementing 15 large construction projects of the government, involving around Tk 3,000 crore, the company’s marketing manager Shafaeth Hossain, said earlier.

The projects include Rab Headquarters in Ashkona, the Revenue Building in Agargaon, the Artha Building and two 25-storey buildings at the Secretariat, the National Institute of Traumatology Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, the Neuroscience Building, and the NGO Foundation in Agargaon, he added.