The High Court on Wednesday wanted to know what steps has the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) taken or whether any action has been taken at all against engineer AKM Fazlullah, Managing Director of Chattogram water supply and sewerage authority (WASA), on allegations of money laundering, recruitment trade and other irregularities.
The court asked the lawyer of the Anti-Corruption Commission to convey the order through fax to the Chattogram regional office of the ACC by Wednesday (yesterday) and granted one month time for complying with the order.
The High Court bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman passed the order after hearing a writ petition
filed challenging the legality of the re-appointment of engineer AKM Fazlullah as the Managing Director of Chattogram wasa.
Advocate Ekram Uddin Khan Chowdhury appeared in the court on behalf of the writ petitioner, while advocate Nowsher Ali Molla represented the ACC.
Chattogram WASA managing director Fazlullah joined in the organization in 1968 as an assistant engineer. Later he went on retirement in 1998 after serving as an executive engineer of the organization for a full term.
The government appointed him as chairman of Chattogram WASA on July 8, 2009 for one year by a notification. Later, when the Chattogram WASA Board was formed, he became the managing director for three months in the first phase. After being re-appointed in five terms, he has been performing this duty for the last 9 years.
Fazlullah, 80, is due to end his three-year term as managing director on October 31. However, before that, the board meeting on September 7 this year had recommended his appointment for another three years.
It has been alleged that engineer AKM Fazlullah has made the recommendation of his appointment by a loyal board to consolidate his power in the long run in the ongoing projects worth several thousand crores at Chattogram Wasa.
But the board claimed that they had recommended his name as they thought to keep an experienced person in the post to maintain the continuity of ongoing development work of the organization.
In the meantime a resident of Chattogram, Md Hassan Ali, made complain in the office of ACC in Chattogram demanding investigation on allegations of money laundering, recruitment trade and other irregularities.
Mr Hassan Ali finally filed a writ petition on last Sunday with the High Court challenging the inaction of ACC in conducting investigation on the allegations and the recommendation for reappointing Falullah in the post.
In the hearing advocate Nowsher Ali Molla said, “The petitioner made the complaint on September 11 this year. I don’t know if the Chattogram ACC had taken any step over the complaint. Moreover, he has filed a writ petition within 8 days of filing the complaint. This is not enought time for taking preparation to start sorting or investigating over the allegations.”
