Employees of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL), former Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB), misappropriated over Tk 45 crore in three sectors involving transportation between 2000-2001 and 2007-2008.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) taskforce, while probing corruption at the BTTB head office in Dhaka as part of its drive against institutional corruption, found that the employees indulged in corruption in dealing with transport fares, vehicle maintenance and fuel expenditure at the head office.
Of the total embezzled amount, Tk 5.98 crore of transport fares of its employees was misappropriated by showing fake vouchers of journeys only between fiscal years 2005-2006 and 2007-2008 while Tk 30.33 crore was embezzled between fiscal years 2000-2001 and 2005-2006 by showing fake maintenance expenditure of vehicle or fake bills from workshops.
Investigators claim that most of the Tk 13.07 crore the BTTB head office spent on fuel between fiscal years 2000-2001 and 2007-2008 was misappropriated by showing journeys the vehicles made and low fuel mileage.
“From the top-most post to class-four employees of former BTTB there were people involved in corruption,” said ACC Director General (admin) Col Hanif Iqbal while disclosing the ACC findings before the press at the ACC headquarters yesterday.
He said the employees embezzled the money in collusion with each other.
“I do not know anything regarding the allegation of graft brought by ACC involving people from the top-most post of BTTB to fourth-class employees,” said former BTTB chairman Ashraful Alim, the first managing director of BTCL.
The ACC investigation also revealed that the BTTB head office used up to 104 vehicles instead of the authorised 27. The ACC’s partial investigation report also mentioned that BTCL is now using 81 cars.
The ACC is still investigating corruption in transport fares of BTTB employees between fiscal years 2000-2001 and 2004-2005 and corruption in vehicle maintenance between 2006-2007 and 2007-2008.
“Maintenance expenditure of a car was shown at Tk 6 lakh per year on average and one can buy 104 reconditioned cars with the money BTTB spent on maintenance,” Hanif Iqbal added.
He refused to disclose the names of people involved in corruption for the sake of ongoing investigation.
The Daily Star correspondent saw a number of vehicles including SUVs, cars and minibuses lying idle at the front yard of former BTTB head office in Dhaka.
The Daily Star came across a number of drivers of former BTTB.
“We knew about the graft. Sometimes we suspected graft and sometimes we came to know from newspaper reports that divulged corruption in transportation,” said a BTTB driver requesting not to be named.
“We have to perform many duties every day including family duties of officers like taking their children to schools and sometimes taking their relatives to their offices,” the driver added requesting anonymity repeatedly.
The BTTB began its journey as BTCL from July 1 this year.
TRANSPORT FARE
Between 2005-2006 and 2007-2008 fiscal years, the BTTB showed Tk 8.40 crore as transport fare expenditure while the ACC found that the employees of BTTB used only Tk 2.42 crore of the money by mentioning the expenditure in their register.
The rest was drawn and embezzled by submitting fake vouchers, of journeys never taken. Interestingly, the vouchers are always valued at only Tk 25.
The ACC investigation disclosed that the employees and officers of BTTB drew money by submitting a number of these vouchers, usually Tk 2,000 a week in two phases. The fake vouchers usually showed fare of “journeys on official purpose”.
The investigation also cited an example on how the money was distributed. A deputy director of BTTB took Tk 800 in a phase while an assistant director took Tk 600 and then the amount goes downwards according to the rank.
The BTTB showed Tk 2.68 crore, Tk 2.66 crore, Tk 2.73 crore, Tk 2.91 crore and Tk 3.05 crore as transport fare of its employees in the fiscal years between 2000-2001 and 2004-2005 respectively.
TRANSPORT MAINTENANCE
The BTTB showed Tk 33.36 crore as vehicle maintenance expenditure between the fiscal years 2000-2001 and 2005-2006. The ACC found documents of workshop bills worth Tk 3.63 crore.
Tk 6.44 crore, Tk 4.84 crore, Tk 3.97 crore, Tk 4.37 crore, Tk 5.30 crore and Tk 5.41 crore were embezzled during the fiscal years respectively.
FUEL EXPENDITURE
The ACC investigation mentioned that on an average the BTTB has shown fuel usage of a car between 500 and 600 litres per month even though government rules do not allow using over 200 litres of fuel per month.
Most of the money shown as fuel expenditure was misappropriated either by showing fake journeys to destinations or by showing poor mileage of vehicles, the report said adding that investigation in the sector is not yet complete.
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