IMED rejoinder and our reply

The Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) has issued a rejoinder in response to two reports published in The Business Standard on 7 July 2023, titled "End power sector's capacity charge, repeal indemnity law: Monitoring body" and "Corruption behind unfit foreign firms getting power project: report."

The rejoinder, signed by IMED Director Mohammad Mahidur Rahman, asserts that the statements attributed to IMED in the aforementioned reports are not representative of IMED's views. These statements were originally published in the Bangla version of The Daily Star online on 27 October in an article titled "Bidyut-Jalani Sankater Shalpa, Madhya, O Dirghomeyadi Samadhan'' authored by Foyez Ahmed Tayyab, according to IMED's claim.

"It should be noted that the information and opinions mentioned in the aforementioned article were stored in the database of the IMED for verification with other publications and information from various publications by the Power Division," reads the rejoinder.

It further states that there is no scope for including a report concocted by an individual as part of the IMED's research report and that it was not included in the original report. Nevertheless, the views expressed in Foyez Ahmed Tayyab's article were uploaded to IMED's website without any alterations as part of the report. "Necessary initiatives have been taken up by the IMED to find out how the opinions expressed in the article were incorporated as part of the report and uploaded in the website," it reads.

The rejoinder further asserts that the information presented in the report is biased, baseless, and propagandistic against the government. Additionally, IMED believes that the opinions expressed by Foyez Ahmed are not aligned with the development plans and initiatives undertaken by the power sector to fulfill Bangladesh's electricity demand and achieve the targets set forth in Vision 2041. The final report has already been uploaded on IMED's website for public information.

"Therefore, the IMED protests the published news as it finds it baseless, concocted, false and not based on facts," the rejoinder concludes.

Our reply

The reports published in TBS are based on the "Research Report on Implementation Progress of Projects in Power Sector" published on IMED's website. The TBS reports do not contain any information other than IMED's research report, and statements of experts and parties concerned on any subject.

Chapter 5.2 of the IMED's research report had a section titled "Power Sector Issues and Prospects and Ways to Overcome the Challenges". Although this part is mentioned in the rejoinder as the opinion piece of Foyez Ahmed Tayyab published in The Daily Star, no such reference was given in the original research report uploaded in the IMED website.

IMED temporarily removed the original report from its website on Saturday morning after several media outlets, including The Business Standard, published news articles based on the research report. However, the report re-appeared on the website on Saturday evening, dropping section 5.2. The Business Standard has preserved the downloaded original report.

Furthermore, certain words, language, and recommendations in some chapters of the IMED report have been modified. Regarding the issues mentioned in the rejoinder as "not IMED's statements," TBS had spoken to IMED officials, including the lead researcher, adviser of the report and the planning minister during the writing of the news reports.