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Download PDF The army will assist BTTB in recovering its Tk 641.81 crore outstanding bills of which Tk 120 crore is due with government organisations.
A taskforce under the National Coordination Committee on Corruption and Serious Crimes (NCC) took charge of scrutinising irregularities in Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) on May 14 with an aim to strengthen the state-run landline operator scheduled to become a public limited company by July.
The taskforce found that out of the Tk 641 crore outstanding bills, semi-government institutions owe Tk 71.4 crore, government organisations owe Tk 120 crore and the private sector owes the rest Tk 450.41 crore.
“We will assist BTTB to recover the dues,” said Major Shafiul Azam Parvez while talking to The Daily Star yesterday. “Our main aim is to provide legal support to BTTB in recovering the outstanding bills,” he added.
He, however, said the taskforce’s aim is not to harass the defaulters. BTTB’s bill defaulters will have a chance to clarify their position and pay their dues in a process, he said.
The taskforce found major irregularities in transportation, accommodation, finance and training trips abroad in BTTB. Many investigations in different departments of BTTB are going on to find out more irregularities.
Interestingly, the management of BTTB does not know how many employees it has. The taskforce assumed that there are loopholes in paying salaries as there is no transparent process of the accounts division in this regard.
During the last three weeks, the taskforce found that the BTTB owns 500 vehicles. However, it has 922 vehicles in its transportation pool.
Citing the irregularities in BTTB’s transportation system, Parvez said the BTTB headquarters in Dhaka has 80 vehicles including 27 cars that BTTB owns. During the 2005-06 financial year, Tk 1.50 crore was allocated as transportation expenditure to the BTTB headquarters. But, the BTTB headquarters spent Tk 6.60 crore.
The BTTB headquarters spent Tk 6.18 crore to run the 27 cars. The managers concerned pocketed the rest 42 lakh for their own purposes, Parvez alleged.
Parvez said, “No one knows how the rest of the vehicles were running.”
The BTTB already got government nod to run as public limited company by next month. The government is working on forming a new board for BTTB.
The state organisation owns 1,843.29 acres of land across the country. But it did not complete mutation process of its 616.95 acres of land, which could be a problem when it turns into a public limited company, said Parvez.
The taskforce will also help BTTB solve the problem immediately.
The taskforce found that on average a total of 130 officials of BTTB go abroad for training purposes a year. But when they return, they are not placed to a post according to what they have learnt abroad.
Parvez said the taskforce found that 35 officials of BTTB went abroad for training in the engineering quota even though they were not of the engineering cadre.
Some officials of BTTB frequently went abroad, even six to seven times, while some officials never had a single training trip.
“Actually, there is no policy in BTTB on sending people abroad for training, which is absolutely intolerable,” Parvez said.
The taskforce will work with BTTB for a certain period of time. During that time anyone can share their views with them to strengthen BTTB. For contacting the taskforce anyone can fax to 8333429 or email to bttb.taskforce@gmail.com or ncc.taskforce@gmail.com.
July 1st, 2008 at 5:05 pm
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