Bangladesh News

One hundred and twenty-four staff of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd yesterday handed over their illegally amassed properties worth about Tk 350 crore to the task force while 11 others also supposed to do so have gone into hiding, sources said.

Earlier, all of these 135 staff including 10 officials had admitted their involvement in corruption and committed to hand over their illegally earned properties.

The task force yesterday recommended to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and National Board of Revenue (NBR) filing cases against 30 other staff for concealing wealth.

Members of the task force formed for Titas Gas had earlier found inconsistencies in wealth statements of the 30 staff, including 20 officials. But they refused to return their illegally amassed wealth claiming they had no such wealth.

Titas Gas and task force sources said all Titas staff were asked by the Titas authorities to submit wealth statements.

When contacted yesterday, Khalekuzzaman Faruq, general manager (administration) of Titas Gas however declined to make any comments in this regard.

Many of the 124 staff yesterday handed over documents of illegal properties worth several crore taka each, task force sources said.

A number of Titas staff have

become billionaire or millionaire through corruption, they said.

The 11 staff who are hiding include meter readers Mahbubur Rahman, Faizul Huq and Abul Kashem, former CBA president Habibur Rahman, helper Mokter Miah, supervisers Tofayel Ahmed Chowdhury and Sohrab Hossain, Md Reaz Ahmed, Fayez Ahmed and two sales assistants.

Lt Col ATM Hasan Ahmed, chief coordinator of the task force, told The Daily Star, “Out of 135 staff who admitted involvement in corruption and committed to return their illegal properties, 124 have handed over their deeds and documents.”

In reply to a question, he said, “It is difficult to estimate immediately the value of the properties returned. In the next 10 to 12 days, we may be able to complete the estimates.”

Of the 11 staff who did not return their illegal wealth, eight went into hiding, and relatives of two meter readers and the former CBA president informed them that they were hospitalised, Hasan said.

About the 30 staff, he said, “We have sent their wealth statements and our findings to the ACC through the NBR. We also recommended filing corruption cases against them.”

The task force members in their investigation unearthed astonishing corruption in Titas Gas. They found that former sales assistant Abdul Kadir Mollah, whose salary was only Tk 4,000 a month, owns properties worth about Tk 2100 crore.

Receptionist Olifa Akhter, allegedly promoted to the post of deputy general manager (computer), owns property worth several crore taka, including several buildings and flats, and bank balance, the probe found.

Besides, senior officials Khorshedul Hassan and Md Khalid Hasan were found to have huge illegal properties.

Talking to reporters last week, task force officials said they found that at least 80 per cent of Titas’ 2,800 employees had made crores of taka each through corruption.

Titas is the country’s largest state-owned gas distributor with 80 percent market share.

The task force investigators said they were surprised at the scale of corruption in the company. Almost everyone in it is a millionaire.