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Pilferage adds fuel to DCC fuel cost

SOHEL ISLAM
The fuel expenditure of the transport pool of the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) have gone up to over Tk one crore in the last decade due to suspected pilferage, increase in price and other irregularities.
In 1993, the DCC had spent around Tk 22 lakh for fuel while in 2003 it was nearly Tk 1.3 crore although the number of vehicles have by and large remained the same.
Mayor Sadeq Hossain Khoka on August 16 this year placed partial control of the transport pool under the conservancy department due to alleged pilferage by the drivers and other unscrupulous officials and employees.
The DCC's transport pool consists of two departments central pool and conservancy pool. The central pool has 136 vehicles including cars, jeeps, microbuses and pickups while the conservancy pool has 371 vehicles including pay loaders, open trucks, container carriers, bulldozers and water tankers.
"Although control has been transferred, the pilferage at the transport department still goes on. The fuel consumption every month has remained the same as it was two months ago," a senior official of the DCC said.
"I cannot say the exact figure of money being spent on fuel now. But after the shift in control everything is improving," said chief conservancy officer of the DCC Sohel Faruqui.
"Tk 65 lakh was spent for fuel for the automobiles of the conservancy pool in October this year. The same amount of money was also spent in August," said Manager of Transport Department Millatul Islam.
A source at the DCC alleged that as there is no ceiling for fuel consumption in the conservancy pool, the drivers take more fuel than is needed.
"Had there been a bar, the theft would not have been so rampant. Despite around a hundred vehicles remaining out of order for nearly a year, the transport department is still issuing fuel for them every day.
'The pilferage at the central pool is much less than in the conservancy fleet. Each car gets nine litres while a jeep is entitled to have ten litres a day," the source informed.
Millatul Islam refuted the allegations of pilferage and irregularities.
"We don't issue fuel against out-of-order vehicles. What happens is that we have to use the running vehicles for waste disposal for more than their normal schedules. Therefore, we need to take the fuel, which would have been otherwise allotted for the out-of-order vehicles. This is where people misunderstand us," claimed Islam.
"Besides, over the last ten years, the price of diesel, patrol and octane has almost doubled. This is another reason behind the increase in fuel expenditure," added Islam.