Bangladesh's interim government on Thursday formed a committee to investigate the expenditure on and the sources of surveillance equipment procured during the previous government鈥檚 tenure.
The committee was formed at the 38th meeting of the council of advisers, presided over by chief adviser professor Muhammad Yunus, held at his Tejgaon office in Dhaka.
Following the meeting, CA press secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters at a press briefing at the Foreign Service Academy in the city that the cabinet discussed recent findings by the Tech Global Institute, which reported that between $200 million and $300 million worth of surveillance equipment was purchased during the previous government鈥檚 tenure.
He said that a committee had been formed, headed by the chief adviser鈥檚 special assistant for ICT, posts, and telecommunications, Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, to investigate the expenditure and the procurement sources of the surveillance equipment.
Shafiq alleged that spyware, collected under those purchases, was used for illegal monitoring and undermining citizens鈥� constitutional right to privacy during the tenure of the previous authoritarian Hasina regime.
He said that investigations were also under way into the procurement of lethal weapons for the police during the same period, examining both the purchasing process and their use.
