Photo : TDM
National flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airline’s audit department had unearthed embezzlement of Tk 118 crore by a section of Biman employees as they did not collect the money as per rules from cargo handling.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had filed a case in this regard against 16 officials of the cargo wing of Biman on December 3, 2019. However, the ACC is yet to complete its investigation even after over three years.
In the meantime, all the accused have retired. Now the case is being inquired by Assistant Director Ataur Rahman Sarker.
ACC Deputy Director Nasir Uddin filed the case in the Integrated District Office (Dhaka-1) as the plaintiff. Two accused– former director Mohammad Ali Ahsan and former manager Iftekhar Hossain Chowdhury were arrested on the day of filing of the case. The inquiry slowed down since then.
Meanwhile, Asia Khatoon, wife of Civil Aviation and Tourism Secretary Mokammel Hossain, joined ACC as Commissioner (Investigation) in early June which has created doubt of influencing the inquiry of the cargo case.
When asked regarding the reason of snail pace of inquiry, Ataur Rahman declined to comment on the issue.
In this regard, ACC Commissioner (Investigation) Zahurul Haque told The Daily Messenger on Wednesday, "It is not in my knowledge. I don't have everything in my memory. I can tell you about the document which is in front of me. You should talk to the DG or secretary.”
When contacted, ACC Secretary Mahbub Hossain did not receive calls.
Former Director General of ACC (Legal and Prosecution) Moyeedul Islam told TDM, "According to section 20(a) of the ACC Act, the inquiry officer will get 120 working days for investigation. If he cannot complete the investigation within that time, he can get another 60 working days by showing proper reason.”
He further said that if the investigation is not completed within 180 working days, the commission can take departmental action against the official concerned. The commission will assign a new officer to investigate the case and he will get a maximum of 90 working days to complete the inquiry.
“This is nothing but time pass and negligence if the inquiry of a case filed in 2019 has not been completed yet.”
According to the case statement, $1.51 crore (more than Tk 118 crore) of recoverable duty from goods coming and going abroad on non-scheduled freighters in six years were not deposited in the treasury of the airline. The defendants, in connivance with each other, caused losses to Biman and the government without collecting that amount. The embezzlement took place from 2012 to 2017 in the cargo wing of Biman. The issue of non-payment of fees was unearthed during the internal audit of Biman Bangladesh Airlines from July 2015 to June 2017.
The 16 accused are - former general manager Mohammad Ali Ahsan, acting general manager Md Arif Ullah, former Manager (Export) Iftekhar Hossain Chowdhury, Assistant Manager (Commercial) and later Country Manager (Dammam, Saudi Arabia) Shahidul Islam, Assistant Manager later Regional Manager of Riyadh Aminul Haque Bhuiyan, former Assistant Manager (commercial) Md Lutfe Jamal, former Assistant Manager (Commercial) Mosharraf Hossain Talukder, former Assistant Manager (Commercial) Rajiv Hasan, former Assistant Manager (Commercial) Nasir Uddin Talukder, former Assistant Manager (Commercial) Anup Kumar Barua, former Assistant Manager (Commercial) KN Alam, Assistant Manager (Commercial) Md Fazlul Haque, former Assistant Manager (Commercial) Syed Ahmad Patwari, former Assistant Manager (Commercial) Monir Ahmed Majumdar, former Manager (Import) AKM Manjurul Haque and former Assistant Manager (Commercial) Shahjahan.
When contacted, Biman’s GM PR Tahera Khandkar did not receive calls.
Later, Biman Manager (Public Relations) Md Nazrul Islam told TDM that all three of the accused – Md Arif Ullah, Shahidul Islam and Aminul Haque Bhuiyan have retired while Arif Ullah lives in Canada.
TDM/SD
