Probe outcome of RHD shootout Will the lessons be learnt?

After probing the shootout incident at the Roads and Highways Department (RHD), the three-member committee has confirmed that it was a turf war between two pro-Awami League groups over assuming full control of the lucrative tender business. The probe report says that the RHD workers' union leaders assailed and shot at some Swechchhasebak Lague men in what was a retaliatory act on the part of the former. This is outrageous, to say the least, and a clear demonstration of the extent to which a section of unscrupulous RHD officials and pro-AL political groups are involved in corruption and tender manipulations. Now that the culprits have been identified, we demand of the incumbent communications minister to take legal actions against them and give them exemplary punishment.
As we know it, the RHD is responsible for repairing and maintaining all the run-down roads and highways of the country and every year a huge amount of money is allocated to this department to accomplish its work. In the backdrop of frequent road accidents claiming hundreds of innocent lives due to faulty construction and dilapidated conditions of highways, this department's work in the form of timely repair and structural reinforcement has become all the more important.
In fact, the probe report has brought to glaring light why the seriously potholed, dilapidated roads still remain so to the peril of commuters even after hefty amount of allocated funds and even after repeated outcries from media and different public quarters. Most of the fund is misappropriated by the corrupt coteries leaving the roads either very poorly repaired or entirely unchanged.
Therefore, we think the communications minister's response to the report should not be confined to punishing the shootout culprits only; he should rather break the nexus between corrupt RHD officials, influential political quarters and greedy contractors. In addition to containing the corrupt elements in the RHD, he must cleanse this department of the influence of all ruling party elements and thereafter make sure that the contracts are awarded to reputed and eligible contractors.