The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

The Anti-Corruption Commission has unearthed huge corruption and irregularities involving crores of Taka in the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL), previously known as Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB).

A special team constituted to look into graft in the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications appeared to have detected corruption and irregularities involving about Tk 26 crore in the last eight years, ACC director general (admin) Col Hanif Iqbal said at the Commission's regular briefing yesterday. The alleged corruption and irregularities took place in Wire Storehouse and Factory Directorate of the BTCL.

According to the team's findings, an amount of Tk 47.43 crore was shown spent on procurement of materials for four organizations under the Wire Storehouse and Factory Directorate from 2000-2001 to 2007-2008 fiscal years against the actual spending of Tk 8.89 crore. The spending did not go down despite significant reduction in works and demand for materials produced in the factory.

During the period, it was shown that an amount of Tk 16.8 crore was spent on conveyance of the employees and officials, while Tk 8.93 crore on repair and maintenance.

According to the ACC special team, this amount (Tk 25.74 crore) was actually misused through financial irregularities, which is tantamount to misappropriation.

It also detected huge corruption in the cases of fuel used in trucks to transport materials and purchasing materials for the storehouse.

Earlier, the special team uncovered such more irregularities in different departments of the BTCL.