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JS body for naming officials liable for Tk 19cr ICD loss

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
A parliamentary body yesterday asked the finance ministry to identify the officials involved in financial irregularities leading to losses of over Tk 19 crore to the Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Kamlapur in fiscal year 2000-01.
The Public Accounts Committee yesterday at a meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban also expressed dissatisfaction as a portion of the embezzled money was recovered but the officials responsible for anomalies were not yet brought to book.
"We asked the internal resources division under the finance ministry to probe the corruption to find out the culprits and come up with the report in a month," Advocate Harun Al Rashid, chairman of the committee, told The Daily Star yesterday after the meeting.
If the officials are found guilty of embezzling public money, the committee will recommend punitive action against them, the chairman said.
The office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in 2000-01 audit reports raised 38 objections involving Tk 19.1 crore. The reports suggest officials at the ICD were involved in various irregularities including not fixing supplementary taxes and accurate prices of the commodities. They
often fixed low rate for foreign currencies.
The parliamentary body yesterday discussed 10 objections concerning about Tk 3 crore.
Officials of the finance ministry apprised the meeting of recovering about Tk 1.5 crore embezzled by different officials. Committee members still slammed the ministry for taking steps so late, after four years.
"Had we not sit to review the audit objections, the amount of money would not have been recovered," Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, committee member and a ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmaker said at the meeting.
Committee chairman echoed the view and said the ministry should immediately initiate steps to detect the culprits responsible for anomalies in the ICD.
Besides, the parliamentary body also asked the office of the CAG to audit the ticketing system of Bangladesh Biman in a month.
But Comptroller and Auditor General Asif Ali citing lack of modern technology in his office said it would not be possible to complete the audit within a month, rather it would take at least three months. The committee then extended the time frame.