Shoddy building workmanship

It appears that contractors who are given jobs by the government to construct buildings have made it a habit to construct buildings that utilise non-building material as was found to be the case in the four-storey building of the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) recently. Quite by chance some students discovered the use of bamboo sticks instead of angle rods or steel sheets. That discovery has prompted the formation of an investigative committee to probe the matter. What shocks us is that the Public Works Department engineers apparently assured the director of RMCH that the use of bamboo sticks was apparently not a danger.

This construction is worth Tk 30 crore and the question we must ask ourselves is whether a thorough investigation is going to be conducted to see whether substandard material has been used in other parts of the building. To say that the use of bamboo sticks is "not dangerous" is a callous statement and shows the mentality of passing the buck by authorities that a major oversight has occurred and we should look the other way. We are thankful that the building commissioned in 2012 is still standing and nothing in the way of accidents have occurred.

It is interesting that the government has a dedicated project monitoring body, the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) that was formed in 1984 for ensuring strict monitoring and evaluation of public works. Sadly this body is sorely lacking in manpower resources, which merely works to the advantage of unscrupulous contractors. It is high time authorities beefed up the IMED so that quality workmanship is assured for public money expended.