Salman F Rahman on Wednesday came down heavily on the civil aviation and Bangladesh Biman authorities for their failure to reoperationalise EDSs (explosive detection scanners) at the cargo village.
Exports have been badly affected for the non-functioning of the scanners.
Expressing his angst during a surprise visit to cargo village along with leading apparel makers, the PM's private industry and investment affairs adviser lambasted the officials concerned finding valuable exportables in a scattered state.
"What kind of nonsense is this? You (the authorities) keep export products in that way. It might get damaged. You should visit other countries to see how they are handling these."
"We are talking about LDC graduation. I feel really ashamed that this is the facility I am giving," adds the frustrated Mr Rahman.
The high-ups of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), which owns space of the cargo village, and Bangladesh Biman, which is responsible for cargo handling, did not answer anything over the mismanagement.
After the visit, Mr Rahman told a press briefing that he has recently received too many complaints from exporters and buyers that their business is being badly hampered because of non-functional EDSs.
Days ago, he along with the commerce minister sat with CAAB and Biman authorities regarding worries of the businesses.
"We were being told that the problem arose because of non-functional of scanners and we were also assured that the problem will be solved in few days."
But the problem still exists that drove him to make the visit to see the problem physically, Mr Rahman said.
He says four EDSs were installed at the cargo village last March to speed up export cargo scanning and two of them have not been operationalised yet.
"October is about to come. My point is why they are not able to operationalise the two machines even after six months of the installation," he laments the fact.
"They excuses issues like validation and foreign technical hands need to come but they could not because of Covid-19. The explanation is not acceptable to me."
The PM's adviser said the country maintained 5.6 per cent economic growth even during the pandemic period.
"It means we are being able to work in such crisis time. If we have worked, why they didn't? I see clear negligence of the authorities," he said.
Now, the CAAB and Bangladesh Biman reassured them of solving the problem by next month as foreign technicians are supposed to be come here from validation to operationalise two EDSs.
Two other machines, which have not been repaired due to crisis of spare parts, will also be solved by next month as well, Mr Rahman said.
"So, we have to bear the pain for few more days," he continued.
In the absence of the EDSs, cargo handling is now done through sniffer dogs.
Businesses claim that mismanagement and slow scanning have seriously hampered garment exports, leading to delays and soaring air freight rates.
Former BGMEA presidents Anisur Rahman Sinha, Siddiqur Rahman and Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin were also present during the visit.
