The panic of being arrested at any time is haunting the corrupt officials and staffs of Biman Bangladesh Airlines after its two former top officials were apprehended over corruption charges.
The duo were held in a case filed by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Deputy Director Md Nasir Uddin with the Dhaka-1 coordinated office of ACC against a total of 16 officials and employees of Biman.
According to the case statement, the accused in collusion with each other misappropriated Tk 118.4 crore of the government misusing their power while working at Biman’s cargo section.
The anti-corruption drive began at the beginning of this year. As part of its stringent investigation against corrupt officials of Biman, in May this year, the ACC seized the corrupted officials' passports to bar them from leaving the country.
As the drive started, state minister for civil aviation and tourism Md Mahbub Ali warned that none of the corrupted officials would be spared, as the government is showing zero-tolerance against corruption.
“Corrupted officials do not have any identity, they have just ruined the state-owned organization. They must have to face punishment”, said the state minister.
Aviation expert and a former member of Biman board of director Kazi Wahidul Alam said that “The state-owned organization could not progress due to corruption. In the ACC drive, it is clear that how much corruption has been there for over the years. If the allegations against the corrupt officials are proved, they should be brought under strict punishment”.
On condition of anonymity, a Biman official said, when the news of arrest of former Biman Director Ali Ahsan Babu and former Biman DGM Iftekhar Hossain Chowdhury spread, Regional Manager (marketing department) and some others left the office silently.
Corrupt officials in the past four years, extracted taka 20 to taka 25 lakh each day from the intending passengers through blocking available Biman tickets and cargo handling.
According to a source close to the investigation, each day Biman has 8000 tickets on different routes. Among those tickets, the corrupt officials block a few hundred tickets which they sell to an agent at a higher cost. In this way each day they embezzle Tk 25 lakh.
“Gradually each of the corrupt official will be brought to light”, he added. ACC investigation report unveiled prevalence of corruption in 19 sectors of Biman and Civil Aviation of Bangladesh. A report on corruption was handed over to the President in March this year.
In the report, it was mentioned specifically, how the syndicate ruined the profitable state-owned organization. At the same time, the report suggested some measures to curb corruption in future by taking actions against those involved in the scam.
Other accused were identified as Acting General Manager (Cargo Service) of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines, M Habibullah Akand, former Assistant Managers Md Shahidul Islam, who is now posted in Saudi Arabia as a Country Manager, Aminul Huq Bhuiyan, who is now posted in Riyadh of Saudi Arabia as a Regional Manager, Md Lutfe Jamal, Mosharraf Hossain Talukder, Nasir Uddin Talukder, Tapan Kumer Barua, KN Alam, Md Fazlul Huq, Syed Ahmed Patwari, Monir Ahmed Majumder, AKM Manjurul Huq and Md Shahjahan.
