Bribing continued at the Chittagong Port and the Chittagong Customs House (CCH) even after automation of their operation as exporters and importers were forced to pay Tk 4.75 million a day, a study report said Monday.
Besides, the port users had to bribe officials and employees. They had to pay Tk 1.72 million a day to clear delivery of their goods from the port even despite having valid documents, said the report launched by the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).
The study also said a section of unscrupulous officials at the port and at the CCH were illegally hiring about 60-70 people as their assistants. They were doing negotiations with the clients on illegal monetary transactions.
The TIB placed the study report on 'Automation of Export-Import Process at Chittagong Port and Customs House: Governance Challenges and Way Forward' at the Brac Centre Inn in the capital.
TIB programme managers (research and policy) Manjoor-e-Khoda and Juliet Rossette presented the findings of the study done based on information provided by more than 100 individuals, including officials, staff and businessmen. The study had been conducted during the period of six months from January, 2014.
While sharing the study findings, TIB researcher Manjoor-e-Khoda said automation had been introduced both at the port and the CCH to ensure paper-less official work, but the manual system still existed there keeping the scope of corruption.
Despite the automation, any person receiving service had to face 11 steps at the CCH and 16 steps at the port, the report.
"The manual process is still followed at every stage to keep the opportunity of illegal monetary transaction," Mr Manjoor-e-Khoda said.
Tracking modules for bonded products, bringing stakeholders' institutions under the online coverage and billing modules had not been made yet, he added.
The illegal money was transacted by a section of customs officials in the forms of duty fixation (Tk 1,000 by assistant revenue officer), duty approval (Tk 1,000 by revenue officer), product inspection (Tk 1,000 by assistant revenue officer, Tk 2,000 each by assistant commissioner, additional commissioner and revenue inspectors and Tk 5,000 by customs intelligence).
The study revealed that businessmen had to pay additional Tk 3,000 per consignment of products imported on the commercial basis, Tk 1,300 per consignment of non-commercial (bond) products and Tk 4,000 per container of products for manual inspection.
Illegal money transactions were also made for berthing of ships as three cartons of cigarettes worth Tk 5,000 were being collected by the customs immigration for giving a shore pass.
Speaking on the occasion, TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said although the automation was made at the CCH in 1995 and at the Chittagong Port in 2009, it could not be made fully operational as vested quarters were creating obstacles to the move in their personal interest.
"Illegal transactions involving about Tk 4.75 million are done daily at the CCH causing a big revenue loss to the government. It is also contributing to the price hike of products," he said. Demanding full implementation of the automation system, he said the government should immediately take action against such brokers for the sake of good governance at the port.
Responding to a query, he said some businessmen were also taking help of the brokers for dodging duties and other purposes. "It's a win-win situation for the groups doing unethical practices," he added.
TIB trustee board member Hafiz Uddin Khan said all the activities in and around the country's prime seaport needed to be automated fully in consideration of the port's contribution to the economy.
"Capacity and efficiency of the port have not improved to the expected level despite container handling," he added.
The TIB put forward a nine-point recommendation, including taking stern action against the unscrupulous officials involved in corruption, formation of codes of conduct for customs and port officials and their implementation, evaluating efficacy of the automation system and submission of wealth statements of customs and port officials every year.
TIB Deputy Executive Director Dr Sumaiya Khair was also present at the launching ceremony of the report.
