The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) of Bangladesh has filed a case against 22 serving and former officials of Biman Bangladesh Airlines along with an airworthiness consultant of Civil Aviation Authority on charges of causing Tk 11.61 billion in losses to the airline involving the lease of two aircraft. The aircraft in question are two 777s taken on lease from EgyptAir in the last decade.
The commission inquiry was initiated based on the findings of the parliamentary standing committee on the Civil aviation and Tourism ministry in April 2022. The enquiry revealed that the accused were involved in the lease of two aircraft from Egypt Air Holding Co in 2014 for five years, but the aircraft had been out of order after running for 11 months for February–August 2015 because of problems in the engines.
Meanwhile, four engines were also taken on lease from Egypt Air to run Biman services but the engines stopped functioning. In February 2015, one of the PW4000 engines failed, with the airline leasing other engine from EgyptAir to keep that B777-200(ER) operational. In 2016, a second engine failed, requiring another engine lease from EgyptAir. That second leased engine also failed. But this time rather than sourcing another engine from EgyptAir, the engine was sent to an MRO facility in the US with no fixed repair completion date.
This cost Biman Bangladesh a loss of $108.9 million in additional leases and repairs leading to initiating probe into the matter.
According to the report by the anti-corruption commission, Egypt Air became the lowest bidder in response to the lease put out to tender in September 2013, while the officials opted for the Egypt Air engines aircraft and engines that were very old and weak.
The report also states that the engines of Standard Chartered, which was the second lowest bidder, were better than EgyptAir’s and there was room for negotiation but it was overlooked.
The tender documents warranted that the engines should have at least 4,000 cycles remaining, but one of them had 3,615 cycles left and the other 2,100 cycles left.
Going ahead, the maximum penalty for guilty officials is life imprisonment or a maximum of ten years imprisonment plus a fine said ACC Secretary Mahbub Hossain during a media conference in Dhaka.