Four months after Sheikh Hasina was ousted as Bangladesh’s prime minister following a violent uprising led by students, UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) hired a Canada-based consultancy firm to launch a programme that was named Bangladesh-Collaborative, Accountable and Peaceful Politics (B-CAPP).
Needless to say that the B-CAPP programme got underway with the full authorisation and blessings of Bangladesh Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus, but this has been kept under wraps.
A Canada-based international development consultancy, Alinea International, was hired by the FCDO to execute and implement the B-CAPP project. Alinea International accordingly began work on November 11, 2024, although the actual start date was December 9 that year. The project is scheduled to end on January 31, 2028.
Documents accessed by Northeast News indicate that so far a funding of £177,233 has been released to FCDO’s partner Alinea International which was to “provide technical and management expertise” on B-CAPP. The total programme budget was pegged at £474,468.
The documents show that the B-CAPP programme was aimed to “strengthen the Office of the Chief Adviser’s (OCA) capacity on reform management and strategic communications”.
B-CAPP was designed in ways to “ensure reforms follow a logical sequence, ministries are held accountable, and data is collected efficiently to inform decision-making as well as enhance the OCA’s ability to engage strategically with stakeholders, media, and the public, improving the government’s narrative and combating misinformation”.
While the “purpose of the programme is to protect civic space, foster political collaboration, reduce corruption, and mitigate conflict and violence in Bangladesh” little has been achieved on these fronts as far as ground realities are concerned.
In the past Alinea International was reportedly linked to one William Morrison whose name surfaced in 2017 for his association with an alleged foreign aid scandal in Britain. There is no indication that the Yunus administration did due diligence on Alinea International by way of background checks and thorough vetting.
Was Alinea International the only organisation that was picked or was there a proper bidding process involving a minimum of three such international development consultancies?
Northeast News emailed a questionnaire to Abul Kalam Azad Majumdar, a Deputy Press Secretary in Yunus’ office, on June 21 to seek an official response. However, there was no response till 2 pm of June 22. The following were the questions to which Northeast News sought answers to:
1) Has the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) engaged Canada-based Alinea International to support the Bangladesh Chief Adviser’s Office to strengthen its capacity on reform management and strategic communication?
2) When was Alinea International brought on board to perform this job?
3) Who at Alinea International liaises with the Chief Adviser’s Office?
4) What are the different specific areas in which Alinea International has or is providing support to the Chief Adviser’s Office?
5) Has there been any tangible and measurable benefits since Alinea International was brought on board?
Since his departure from Adam Smith International (ASI), a “private consultancy”, Morrison has been Chairman at MetricsLed, a British-owned software company that “works across the humanitarian, development, defence, and diplomatic space”.
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Additionally, MetricsLed claims that it has “current experience of working on restricted and sensitive programmes for UK, US, other Five Eyes and NATO clients”.
The lack of transparency on the part of the Bangladesh Chief Adviser’s Office – no official order was issued on the appointment of Alinea International to execute and implement the B-CAPP project – prompted Chris Blackburn, a London-based political analyst attached with the European Bangladesh Forum (EBF) to post a series of revealing tweets on X, questioning the links between the FCDO, Alinea International, the Bangladesh Chief Adviser’s Office and Morrison.
