Dhaka, Nov. 22 -- A government watchdog has dug out an epitome of operational, environmental, and governance "failures" in a vital project that continue to undermine Bangladesh's leather sector and its global competitiveness, thereby causing the country to miss millions in foreign exchange.

On such a discovery of fiascos, the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) has strongly criticized the performance of the Leather Industrial Park in Savar.

The project, executed at 5.34 times its original budget and 6.17 times the planned timeline, failed to bring the Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) up to international standards and could not even comply with the government's own Department of Environment requirements, accor...