Staff Reporter :
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Thursday carried out drives at different passport offices in seven districts and detained a total of four fraudsters of organised broker syndicate.
Separate teams of the anti-graft watchdog carried out the drives to stop corruption and harassment of people in the passport offices, according to a press release of ACC.
The drives were launched at Dinajpur, Barishal, Cumilla, Tangail, Sylhet, Meherpur and Munshiganj simultaneously in line with the directive of ACC Director General (administration) Muhammad Munir Chowdhury, the press release read. The ACC teams caught four brokers red-handed from passport offices in four districts-Meherpur, Munshiganj, Cumilla and Dinajpur-and handed them over to mobile courts of the respective district administrations.
The mobile courts later handed them different terms of imprisonment with financial penalties, the press release also read.
In Munshiganj, the ACC team found that Halima Khatun, assistant director of the district passport office, did not verify attendance books of the office for the last month.
Apart from this, the ACC also found that extra money ranging from Tk 1,500 to 4,000 is being charged for issuing a passport.
The passport officials make mistakes in the passport deliberately if the extra money is not given, the ACC said in the press release.
The ACC, during its drive in Sylhet passport office, found that its officials, in connivance with officials of different travel agencies, have given an institutional shape to the brokers’ syndicates.
The ACC team also found that the brokers at Tangail office were seen collecting bribe in different scales from people in the name of issuing passport.
While conducting a drive at Barishal office, the ACC team found evidence that “others in the guise of brokers” collect money from people in the name of issuing passport, the release read.
Besides, the ACC team during its visit, found four officials of the Cumilla passport office absent, it added.
