Rooppur pillow scandal

In 2016, ground preparation work of the nuclear power plant at Rooppur commenced. The Russian government would fund the 90 percent of the $12.65 billion contract through loan. The two units generating 2.4 GWe are planned to be operational in 2023 and 2024. Russian corporation Rosatom will operate the units for the first year before Bangladeshi operators take over. Russia will supply the nuclear fuel and retrieve spent nuclear fuel. == Scandal ==

The documents of the housing project, called Green City, were published in May 2019, and excessive prices listed in the documents prompted allegations of corruption. In 2019, the Bangladesh Citizen Council's convener priced an average pillow as costing from to . According to the ministry's expenditure policy, the central authority must approve purchases above . To circumvent this, the purchase of was split into five parts. Three contracting companies were hired to purchase the products. Among these, the goods supplied by Sajin Enterprise were of low quality. Media outlets including Prothom Alo and Pabna Samachar reported that Golam Faruk Khandakar Prince, MP of the area, was involved with this organization. Another contractor, Majid Sons, was reported to have been negligent in the supply of construction products. ==Reaction==

Authorities The Secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology assured action against the accused of the incident. The then Secretary of the Housing and Public Works Ministry claimed to have formed a committee to determine the price of the products. However, no comment about its progress was made. Shawkat Akbar, project director of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, said the documented expenditure was not unreasonable. He also said that he would be held accountable to the Planning Commission. People Iftekharuzzaman, the executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh, expressed concern over the corruption. The people of Bangladesh trolled and shared memes about the scandal. Economist Khondaker Ibrahim Khaled, former Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank, said that corruption in Bangladesh will increase if the government does not reprimand the scandal's offenders. ==Aftermath==

After the scandal, the government formed a three-member committee to investigate. On 12 December, the Anti Corruption Commission arrested 13 people for corruption: one executive engineer, three sub-divisional engineers, four deputy engineers, three assistant engineers and two contractors. The project was sued for corruption and money embezzlement. According to the ministry, the accused seized around from the project. After the arrest, deputy engineer Shafiqul Islam applied for bail. The High Court denied the bail on 5 July 2020. On 25 October 2021, Samakal reported the accused contractor had returned the money from the purchase. Shahadat Hossain of Sajin Construction was granted bail on 28 August 2020. In September, the Anti Corruption Commission appealed this, seeking the bail's cancellation. The High Court then ruled in favour of the Commission and the bail was canceled and further appealed to ban international travels for Hossain. In the same month, the High Court gave the government six months to resolve three cases in the scam. ==References==