ACC set to complete probe into Tk 4.74b swindling

The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) is set to complete probe into illegal financial benefits some officials of state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) allegedly took from petroleum product suppliers abroad, officials said Sunday.
The Commission in September last year filed a case with the Bandar Police Station in Chittagong city against  six BPC officials on charge of misappropriating Tk 4.74 billion (US$ 60.77 million).
The ACC alleged that the BPC officials including those involved in negotiating deals with the petroleum oil suppliers took financial benefits from the suppliers, said sources.
The Commission alleged, the BPC officials paid more money to oil suppliers but received less quantity of fuel violating contracts.
But the BPC officials said they only carried out jobs as per contracts with the oil suppliers.    
The ACC filed three separate cases against the BPC officials accusing that they stole and sold out 63.15 million litres of crude and refined petroleum products hiding the actual quantity of imported fuel in cooperation with exporters during fiscal years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12.
Deputy Assistant Director of the ACC Mohammad Ali Akbar Khan had filed all the three cases against the BPC officials. He alleged that the BPC 'syndicate' has been misappropriating money for long.
The BPC imported 5.2 million tonnes of crude and refined oil products for fiscal year 2012-13 at a cost of around $5 billion.
It imported 1.4 million tonnes of crude oil, 2.6 million tonnes of diesel, 900,000 tonnes of furnace oil, and combined 300,000 tonnes of kerosene, jet fuel, and octane, during the fiscal year.
The country's sole refinery, owned by the BPC's subsidiary Eastern Refinery Ltd (ERL), produced about 1.4 million tonnes of refined oil products during the period.
The BPC currently has term deals to import refined oil products from the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), the Petco, the trading arm of Malaysia's state-owned Petronas, the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC), the Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), Egypt's Middle East Oil Refinery or MIDOR, the Maldives National Oil Company (MNOC), the state-owned PetroChina and Indonesia's Bumi Siak Pusako until December 2014.
It also has deals in place to import crude oil from the Saudi Aramco and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company up to December 2014.