The country is floating on corruption and money laundering. It is no use asking corruption to end. But if safety of lives is at issue then it is difficult not to appeal to corrupt ones to take into account the consideration the cost in human lives. It is no secret that the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) does not have the best of track records so far as transparency, honesty and straight dealings are concerned. But the level of its corruption is astounding, while in fact it is equally worrisome that the organisation is directly concerned with the safety of people’s lives.
It is alleged that corruption, shady deals and poor level of maintenance can cost lives. And this organisation along with Biman Bangladesh Airlines is also the window of foreigners to visit our country. According to a news report published in a national daily on Tuesday, a section of CAAB officials and employees are involved in corruption in development projects, gold – drug smugglings, and human trafficking.
The report mentioned that a project director has delayed work of a development project because of his random corruption and inefficiency. As a consequence, the government has to put in an additional Tk 100 crore for the project. Not only this, an employee also abridged his age through forgery just to keep him in job for two more years.
Inside sources said, these crimes and corruption were detected while the authority was updating the departmental cases in December last year. Currently, departmental cases are going on against 26 officials and employees. These dishonest officials have reportedly joined hands with a criminal gang. As a result, security at all airports is now at a stake.
It is to be noted that in the CAAB, the biggest corruption allegedly takes place in construction and development work sector. There are allegations that compromising quality of the work, contractors and engineers misappropriate huge amount of money. So, no wonder that Biman has incurred loss for most of the years since its inception in 1972. In fact, things have gotten worse.
In 2007, the army-backed caretaker government turned Biman into a public limited company in an effort to make it a profitable venture. Time has come to take stringent measures against the corrupt coteries inside CAAB who continue to get away with their misdeeds. The top brasses in both CAAB and Biman must answer for the level of malpractice in their respective organisations because the buck stops with them. We suggest formation of a strong committee of experts to constituently scrutinise development projects of these two organisations with a view to restoring transparency and fair deals.
