Measures to be taken to prevent recurrence

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has said that preventive measures should have been taken much earlier to avoid incidents like hacking of server belonging to the revenue board.

A group of unscrupulous people reportedly had taken out consignments worth billions of taka from the Chittagong port during the last three years by using identity and passwords of customs officials, which they obtained by hacking the server of National Board of Revenue (NBR).

"We'll take measures to prevent such untoward incidents (in future)," the minister said without elaborating.

He was talking with reporters on Wednesday after a meeting of the cabinet committee on public procurement at the Bangladesh secretariat.

The more the government adopts technology, the greater will be security threats, he said, adding more and more technology is being adopted, less so in safety and security measures.

Mr Kamal said, "We have to keep more than one firewall against each (software). If one is compromised, than another (will prevent). That can make us secured."

Asked whether any committee was formed to investigate the matter, the minister answered in the negative.

"There will be no results in forming a committee in this case. A committee will not be able to say how to prevent such an incident," he said.

However, an official said four committees have been formed who are investigating the matter.

The meeting gave approval for the procurement of 50,000 tonnes of wheat at a cost of Tk 1.14 billion, proposals relating to setting up of a Hi-Tech Park in Sylhet, and civil works for the rehabilitation of the road near ultra-super critical coal-fired power project, among other schemes.

Meanwhile, UNB added: the government is going to extend its deal with British firm De La Rue for supplying 2.0 million more machine readable passports (MRP).

The firm gets the deal with an increased cost of Tk 407.1 million.

The Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase at the meeting approved the "2nd variation" proposal to this regard.

The finance minister told reporters that under the variation proposal, the UK-based firm will supply 2.0 million passport booklets and 2.0 million lamination foil in continuation of its original deal.

As per the original deal, De La Rue was awarded a contract to supply 15 million MRPs at a cost of Tk 3.62 billion.

A proposal of the home ministry to procure different fire extinguishing materials for its different fire service stations at upazila level received the approval of the purchase committee.

As per the proposal, the Department of Fire Service and Civil Defence will procure 34 kinds of materials under 34 packages in 15 lots at a cost of Tk 880 million.

Mustafa Kamal said the committee sent back three proposals on cyclone shelter construction at three locations and another proposal on construction of a 12-storey building with four basements at Dhanmondi.

At a separate meeting, the Cabinet Economic Affairs Committee sent back a proposal on construction of an outer ring road through PPP around Dhaka district because of some lapses in it.