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No room for JS probe body at Nagar Bhaban

Mayor Khoka claims no corruption in DCC

Rashldul Hasan and Shakhawat Liton
Dhaka City Corporation Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka denied a parliamentary probe body temporary office space in Nagar Bhaban for investigating widespread allegation of corruption and irregularities in DCC during the last seven years.
In a letter to the parliamentary standing committee on LGRD and cooperatives ministry Tuesday, Khoka, who was
elected mayor in early 2002 and mired in controversy’ for alleged widespread corruption, claimed that there is no record of corruption in DCC activities.
The mayor said fresh move to probe the alleged corruption by setting up an office in Nagar Bhaban would hamper implementation of the ongoing DCC projects, its service to people and undermine the image of the local government body before donor agencies. Annoyed by this, the parliamentary' standing committee, which formed the probe body, accused the mayor yesterday of creating obstruction to the parliament's overseeing expenditure of public money and activities of the public organisation.
It. however, decided to go ahead with the investigation as the parliamentary body claimed that it had received widespread allegations of corruption against the mayor.
If necessary, the committee will summon the mayor, councillors and officials of the local government body to appear before it with required documents, Rahmat Ali, chief of the standing committee said.
People will be shocked if they know about the unbridled corruption of the mayor. We are certain that corruption involving crores of taka took place in the DCC. We will make the probe
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report public," Rahmat Ali said after a meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.
Rahmat Ali said Khoka is accused of resorting to corruption and irregularities in allocating shops of DCC-built markets, appointing contractors, leasing out cattle markets and different development works under the DCC and awarding construction jobs to his own men.
He said the last caretaker government cancelled the work order to controversial Orion Group for constructing the much-talked-about Jatrabari-Gulistan flyover on grounds of serious corruption allegations against the mayor and DCC high officials.
"The DCC has completely failed to serve city dwellers due to the unbridled corruption and mismanagement in its activities," the committee chief said.
The committee yesterday asked the DCC mayor to
provide documents on different development projects it implemented in the last seven years.
Terming the DCC a den of corruption, the parliamentary body on July 1 formed a three-member subcommittee to probe widespread allegations of corruption at the DCC, particularly allegations of corruption against the mayor.
The sub-committee led by Awami League lawmaker Monowar Hossain Chowdhury, former chief engineer of LG ED, at a meeting on July 16 sought space in Nagar Bhaban to set up a temporary office.
Chief executive officer and secretary to the DCC attending the meeting agreed with the sub-committee's wish, Monowar told reporters after the meeting.
The sub committee, however, could not begin its work as the DCC later refused to provide the office space.
Finally the mayor on
Tuesday sent a letter to the chief of the parliamentary standing committee, Rahmat Ali, refusing the office space in Nagar Bhaban.
Defending his refusal to give space, Khoka said a taskforce during the last caretaker government had tried desperately to find evidence of corruption but failed. Besides, a cell of AntiCorruption Commission has been examining documents of the DCC at an office in Nagar Bhaban.
He also questioned the intention of the parliamentary body, as it wants to investigate alleged corruption only in the DCC.
"The parliamentary body's decision to enquire the so-called allegations of corruption at the DCC might spark doubts among city dwellers as well as countrymen and create image crisis for the DCC,” Khoka argued.
Khoka along with his wife, son and daughter was sued
by the Anti-Corruption Commission in April last year for acquiring wealth worth Tk 17.57 crore beyond their known sources of income and hiding information about Tk 10 crore in assets in the wealth statements submitted to the ACC.
His tenure expired in early 2007 but he is still holding the office of mayor as the due elections to the DCC could not be held on time due to the state of emergency and now for the lack of a separate Dhaka City Corporation law.
Khoka was not detained during the last caretaker government's rule when the army-led joint force launched a crackdown on corruption suspects. The mayors of other five city corporations were detained on charges of corruption.
At that time, Khoka, former minister and expresident of Dhaka unit of BNP, announced that he would retire from active politics. However, he is now
active in BNP.
Talking to reporters, the parliamentary subcommittee chief said they would start investigating the alleged corruptions in the DCC and ask the DCC officials to appear before the committee at the parliament building with necessary documents.
“We wanted to have a temporary office in Nagar Bhaban to get easy access to the huge number of documents and talk to officials concerned. We thought it will ease the officials' burden of getting the huge number of files to the parliament building," Monowar said.
The parliamentary body yesterday also decided to ask the An ti-Corruption Commission to further investigate alleged corruption against Group Captain (retd) Abu Zafar Chowdhury, chairman of Dhaka Mercantile Co-operative Society (Bank) and his relatives.