Decades of experience in telecom became useless, unless one remained updated with the continuous advancements. The young Turks, in this tech-centric utility, challenged the orthodox mindset of BTTB's puritan management. But they were never allowed to lead.

Unlike its neighbours the country failed to leapfrog, with modern telecom techniques, due to the pseudo seniors suffering from professional geriatric ailments. They have been widening our digital divide through systematic destruction of telecom landscape.

The old school still dominates the sanctuary of telecom civil service. Some of them are roaming around while a good number has faced extinction. Numerous top ranking retired BTTB officials got employed with the private mobile operators.

But none of them, except one, has been assigned to any technical position. Familiarity with the BTTB's maze of institutional corruption was their primary selection criteria. All they have been doing is persuading the ex-colleagues on day-to-day bilateral issues. That's it.

It is a vital indicator of professional obsolescence among the BTTB's hierarchy. Despite such disorder in BTTB's top order, the governments have been upbeat about launching public sector mobile phone since 2001. Birds of a feather flock together.

Providing affordable mobile service has been every government's official goal. But the unofficial agenda of engaging the preferred equipment supplier has been repeatedly switching-off such initiatives.

The Awami League government, at its tenure's twilight, asked BTTB to rollout 200,000-line GSM mobile network under supplier's credit financing. French Alcatel, Swedish Ericsson, German Siemens and China National Machinery Equipment Import & Export Corporation (CMEC) submitted bids in March 22, 2001.

But the media broke the news of tampering this bid document. The provision of submitting field-proven certificates of proposed equipment, in the countries except its homeland, was a prerequisite. It was not an issue with the globally reputed companies. But that clause made the obscure vendor's life difficult.

The press reports further nailed a high ranking and politically powerful BTTB official for unscrupulously deleting that strategic provision from the bid document. Such revelation left no escape route for the nexus. The government had to re-tender the project.

Meanwhile, the days were getting numbered for the Awami League government and the re-tendered bidding was closed on June 25, 2001. The idea was to rush the evaluation and award the contract within twenty days, just before the caretaker government's taking over in July 15.

This time, the BTTB authority again engineered an unscrupulous deal. A bidder quoting highest price with highest interest rate wins the contract by marginally stretching the payment period of supplier's credit. Whereas it should have been other way around.

This writer made eight financial models, according to this ridiculous financial evaluation formula, and showed them to BTTB's top management. They were gimmick enough to envisage the consequences if such scandalous procurement went ahead. The re-tendered bids for BTTB's mobile were not processed furthermore.

Meanwhile, the BNP-lead four party alliance formed the government in October 2001. Its first job was to grill the predecessor by publishing a white paper of their 'corrupt practices'. Graft in telecom sector became the first case study of the first volume of this publication.

But instead of using the white paper as a prosecuting tool, the government preferred it as an inherited map of treasure hunt. The Daily Star reported an initiative to award US$ 10 million repeat order to CMEC in such a project, which had already been prosecuted for corruption. This news remains uncontested.

It demonstrates the appalling moral inconsistency of the present government. In the backdrop of such ethical inconsistency, the government revived the public sector cellular mobile project.

Unlike its predecessor this government scraped the supplier's credit financing provision from the mobile deal. Applause of this good judgement was silenced soon after the fundamental parameters of this project were significantly compromised.

The highly politicised top management of BTTB had customised the entire deal to favour substandard equipment providers. Evidently the authority had doctored the request for proposal to legitimise the submission of fraudulent documents.

These misdeeds are being widely reported by the media but the authority remains mum. Precisely, this bid document of BTTB's third mobile initiative is another official glossary of malpractice.

It allows the obscure vendors dumping their equipment at the exchequer's cost followed by conducting research and development to improvise the delivered hardware and software. BTTB is already facing similar deception in its 92 upazila telecom project.

Therefore, choosing unreliable vendors is bound to make BTTB's proposed mobile infrastructure far inferior to incumbent providers. None of the leading mobile operator has ever engaged any supplier without impeccable global track record.

Therefore, the government's any initiative to close BTTB's mobile phone deal with obscure suppliers will be counterproductive. It may trigger prolonged public interest litigation. It could be also the first chapter of another white paper of corruption when the political opponents of this government resume power.

But none of such act will fulfil the people's long cherished desire for affordable mobile phones. The nexus of middlemen and the BTTB's management should be switched off prior to launching the government's cellular mobile phones.

The writer is a telecom analyst