Special Correspondent :
The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) officials on Monday paid surprise visits to the head office of Bangladesh Biman, Dhaka WASA and Chittagong Customs House, weeks after the anti-graft body’s uproar to root out corruption from the government offices.
Separate ACC teams went to these government offices in the morning to probe the loophole that leads to corruption and irregularities in purchase, recruitment, project implementation and service delivery there.
During the visits, they talked to the high officials in the offices, collected various documents and questioned concerned officials of various departments where irregularities are persistence problem.
“Our teams visited the government offices in Dhaka and Chittagong to probe the allegations of corruption, violation of extent rules and regulations and harassment of businessmen and end users while getting services from theses offices,” a senior ACC official told The New Nation on Tuesday, preferring anonymity.
He said the ACC came up with the latest move to play a proactive monitoring to combat corruption in the government offices.
“We have found irregularities in every tier of Customs House, Chittagong (CCH). A section of customs officials under the CCH are involved in large scale bribery and corruption which already uncovered by media reports,” ACC Commissioner AFM Aminul Islam told media after the visit of the Chittagong Customs House.
“We have instructed the CCH authorities to immediately suspend their corrupt officials who have found involved in bribery and irregularities,” he added. Hossain Ahmed, the CCH Commissioner, who was present at that time of media briefing, refrained from making any comment over the allegations. The ACC Commissioner also said they have been asked to show zero tolerance against any kind of corruption at the Customs House which is generating the largest revenue to the national exchequer. AFM Aminul Islam led the ACC team during the CCH visit accompanied by ACC’s Director General Muhammad Munir Chowdhury and other officials.
Besides, two ACC teams led by Directors Syed Iqbal and Belal Hossain visited the head offices of Bangladesh Biman and Dhaka WASA simultaneously. “We came here to launch a formal investigation into the Biman’s irregularities,” Director Syed Iqbal told The New Nation yesterday. He said the ACC team had a meeting with the Biman MD where it sought his all-out cooperation while conducting the probe.
Belal Hossain, however, could not be reached for comments on WASA visit. Earlier, the ACC announced a ‘crusade’ against corruption targeting at least 20 government offices including RAJUK, WASA, BRTA, Land Department, DESA, Bangladesh Biman and Customs House. It was reported that employees and officials of these offices are seeking bribes randomly from the people while providing services to them. ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmood wrote to the cabinet secretary asking for help from all ministries, departments, offices and organisations in identifying ‘grey areas’ that allow corruption.
Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said that letters were sent to the various ministries on Dec 26, 2016, asking them to identify such grey areas, report them to the ACC and help remove them.
“The letter also requested the secretaries to establish proactive monitoring for purchasing, recruitment and the implementation of projects,” the cabinet secretary told media.
The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) officials on Monday paid surprise visits to the head office of Bangladesh Biman, Dhaka WASA and Chittagong Customs House, weeks after the anti-graft body’s uproar to root out corruption from the government offices.
Separate ACC teams went to these government offices in the morning to probe the loophole that leads to corruption and irregularities in purchase, recruitment, project implementation and service delivery there.
During the visits, they talked to the high officials in the offices, collected various documents and questioned concerned officials of various departments where irregularities are persistence problem.
“Our teams visited the government offices in Dhaka and Chittagong to probe the allegations of corruption, violation of extent rules and regulations and harassment of businessmen and end users while getting services from theses offices,” a senior ACC official told The New Nation on Tuesday, preferring anonymity.
He said the ACC came up with the latest move to play a proactive monitoring to combat corruption in the government offices.
“We have found irregularities in every tier of Customs House, Chittagong (CCH). A section of customs officials under the CCH are involved in large scale bribery and corruption which already uncovered by media reports,” ACC Commissioner AFM Aminul Islam told media after the visit of the Chittagong Customs House.
“We have instructed the CCH authorities to immediately suspend their corrupt officials who have found involved in bribery and irregularities,” he added. Hossain Ahmed, the CCH Commissioner, who was present at that time of media briefing, refrained from making any comment over the allegations. The ACC Commissioner also said they have been asked to show zero tolerance against any kind of corruption at the Customs House which is generating the largest revenue to the national exchequer. AFM Aminul Islam led the ACC team during the CCH visit accompanied by ACC’s Director General Muhammad Munir Chowdhury and other officials.
Besides, two ACC teams led by Directors Syed Iqbal and Belal Hossain visited the head offices of Bangladesh Biman and Dhaka WASA simultaneously. “We came here to launch a formal investigation into the Biman’s irregularities,” Director Syed Iqbal told The New Nation yesterday. He said the ACC team had a meeting with the Biman MD where it sought his all-out cooperation while conducting the probe.
Belal Hossain, however, could not be reached for comments on WASA visit. Earlier, the ACC announced a ‘crusade’ against corruption targeting at least 20 government offices including RAJUK, WASA, BRTA, Land Department, DESA, Bangladesh Biman and Customs House. It was reported that employees and officials of these offices are seeking bribes randomly from the people while providing services to them. ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmood wrote to the cabinet secretary asking for help from all ministries, departments, offices and organisations in identifying ‘grey areas’ that allow corruption.
Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said that letters were sent to the various ministries on Dec 26, 2016, asking them to identify such grey areas, report them to the ACC and help remove them.
“The letter also requested the secretaries to establish proactive monitoring for purchasing, recruitment and the implementation of projects,” the cabinet secretary told media.
