Bangladesh is reeling with overwhelming grief, anger and frustration about their armed forces and asking questions why a fighter jet of the Bangladesh Air Guard crashed into a school, killing 230 students and injuring many more.
Bangladeshi television channel NTV News has recently broadcast a massive corruption scheme within the establishment, revealing a completely rotten system that has led to repetitive aircraft crashes and a very weak armed forces in the region.
Bangladesh’s armed forces can be compared to those of Cambodia. Bangladesh armed forces have allocated a budget of more than $4.7 billion year on year.
Senior Bangladesh military officers, the Ministry of Defence, the Armed Forces Decision, and the Directorate General of Defence Purchase (DGDP) are busy covering up their corruption, embezzlement, and ineptitude in running a professional military.
It seems the entire system is rotten from within; every four-star officer assigned to the top executive job has turned against their own people, who pay them a salary and steal as much money as possible before leaving their position of power.
The Directorate General of Defence Purchase (DGDP) has a cultural problem of accepting kickbacks from suppliers ranging from 5% to 50%. Consequently, DGDP does not accept any invoices or disbursements to vendors or suppliers without kickbacks.
Chinese Norinco, Chengdu, AVIC and Russian Rostec and Rosoboronexport offer kickbacks and grease payments with every purchases of any military gears.
The Bangladesh Army, Navy, and Air Guard have accepted the cultural norm of inflating the price of any military hardware from China, Russia, or an Eastern European country.
Kickbacks, bribes and embezzlement of funds are three reasons Bangladesh does not sign the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with the US because Bangladesh military officers believe suppliers like Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon, Leonardo, BAE Systems, Naval Group will not offer kickbacks to Bangladesh so there is no points purchasing any military hardware from Europe or America.
A list of corrupt deals with Bangladesh Air Guard:
K-8 Trainer
The Karakorum-8 (K-8) is a single-engine, advanced jet trainer and light attack aircraft designed and manufactured jointly by Hongdu Aviation Industry Corporation (HAIC) of China and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) has been exported to many countries including Bangladesh. Bangladesh Air Guard asked Hongdu to inflate the price of the aircraft. Venezuela ordered 18 K-8 trainer aircraft in 2008, worth $82 million, at $4.5 million each. Bangladesh purchased the K-8 jets for $10 million per aircraft.
Yak-130 aircraft
The Yakovlev Yak-130 (NATO reporting name: Mitten) is a subsonic two-seat advanced jet trainer and light combat aircraft developed initially by Yakovlev. The base price of this Soviet-era aircraft is $15 million per aircraft. In contrast, Bangladesh purchased this aircraft $35 million per aircraft, which is more than Leonardo M-346 and T-50 trainers, which are technologically superior to the Russian Yak-130. Bangladesh paid more than $560 million for 16 aircraft, which were included as part of a $1 billion deal with Russian Rosobornexport.
PT-6 Basic trainer
The Nanchang CJ-6 (export name PT-6) is a Chinese basic trainer aircraft designed and built by the Nanchang Aircraft Factory (now Hongdu Aviation) for use by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). According to NTV news, Bangladesh has accepted a second-hand engine with this new PT-6 basic trainer to embezzle funds from this procurement.
The Nanchang CJ-6 (PT-6), a Chinese military trainer aircraft, can range in price from around $50,000 to $170,000 depending on avionics suite buyer selects. On the contrary, Bangladesh air Guard purchases each PT-6 basic trainer at $1 million apiece.
MiG-29 deals
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina allegedly received more than $15 million in bribes to purchase eight MiG-29 fighter jets. Sheikh Hasina was prosecuted for her role in this embezzlement. Meanwhile, only three MiG-29s are operational with the Bangladesh Air Guard.
Su-30SME MRCA
Global Defense Corp will write a report on the Su-30SME MRCA program and how a corruption and money laundering scheme was put together by Shaikh Abdul Hannan, Sheikh Hasina and Sajeeb Wazed.
According to NTV News, Shaikh Abdul Hannan, Sheikh Hasina and Sajeeb Wazed requested that Rostec increase the price of one Su-30SME from $50 million to $120 million. Negotiations with Rostec have been ongoing for more than 12 months without any progress. At that time, Bangladesh had only $400 million budget to purchase eight aircraft. Still, Hasina’s Ponzi scheme to embezzle funds from MRCA would allow Rostec to sell only two aircraft with upgraded European AESA radar as a condition of the MRCA. Rostec declined to start a production run for only two aircraft.
So the deal fell apart, and Shaikh Abdul Hannan used the fund to demolish new buildings in Air Guard’s Headquarters and rebuild those buildings, and embezzled more than $245 million from Air Guard’s budget.
Bangladesh DGDP asks all suppliers and tender participants to inflate the price by 5 percent to 50 percent to embezzle defense budget. A screw was purchased for $150. Uniforms, boots, and body gear were purchased for $15,000, and a toolset was purchased for $20,000. Rampant corruption thrives at all levels of the Bangladesh army, navy and air guard.
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