Embezzlement of Tk 650m from PGCB project unearthed
Sunday, 5 December 2010
An incident of misappropriation of about Tk 650 million (65 crore) was unearthed at the state-owned Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB), reports UNB.
A section of PGCB officials, including some top ones, were allegedly found involved in the embezzlement that had taken place over last several years through tampering of bank cheques.
Both the Power Ministry and the PGCB are investigating the incident of financial corruption.
According to official sources, misappropriation of crores of taka has been taking place in the PGCB since 2005, but these were unearthed first in September this year.
The amount of nearly Tk 650m was allegedly embezzled from a PGCB project - Ishwardi-Baghabari-Sirajganj-Bogra 230 kV Transmission Line Construction.
Some officials withdrew excess money from banks through tampering of a large number of bank cheques in last five years. "While withdrawing the allocated money, they changed the figures mentioned in the cheque and drew excess money," a source said.
Following the detection of the corruption, so far three separate inquiry committees have been formed to probe the corruption and find out the culprits behind the misdeed.
Of the three committees, PGCB board of directors formed a committee while PGCB managing director formed another departmental committee.
Simultaneously, the Power Ministry also formed a committee to investigate into the allegation.
After unearthing the incident, the PGCB initially lodged an FIR with Gulshan Police Station (No-C-29/2010) in September this year.
PGCB Manager Md. Arshad Hossain, named an accused in the FIR, was arrested by the police. Before unearthing the misdeed, Arshad was promoted to the post of manager from deputy manager.
But, interestingly, Arshad was released from jail on bail shortly after his arrest. Now PGCB is unable to trace his whereabouts.
When contacted, Joint Secretary of the Power Ministry Mofazzal Hassain admitted about the case of misappropriation of money.
"We're conducting investigation. We're hopeful of identifying the persons involved in the wrongdoings," he said.
PGCB's acting Managing Director Rafiqul Alam said the departmental investigation identified 8-9 PGCB officials who were found to be involved in the misappropriation of PGCB money.
The officials are Arshad Hossain, Mahbub Ahmed (project director), former project director Ajit Chandra Das, general manager (project) Billal Hossain, Mozammel Hossain (Director P&D), former director Ruhul Amin, General Manager Md. Selim and DGM Belayet Hossain.
Alam said these officials were held responsible for making the financial transactions.
Sources said among the officials, Mozammel Hossain (Director P&D) is now one of the applicants for the top post of the PGCB.
Mozammel Hossain denied his involvement in embezzlement and claimed that his name was not supposed to be in the list of the people identified by the probe body for the incident.
A section of PGCB officials, including some top ones, were allegedly found involved in the embezzlement that had taken place over last several years through tampering of bank cheques.
Both the Power Ministry and the PGCB are investigating the incident of financial corruption.
According to official sources, misappropriation of crores of taka has been taking place in the PGCB since 2005, but these were unearthed first in September this year.
The amount of nearly Tk 650m was allegedly embezzled from a PGCB project - Ishwardi-Baghabari-Sirajganj-Bogra 230 kV Transmission Line Construction.
Some officials withdrew excess money from banks through tampering of a large number of bank cheques in last five years. "While withdrawing the allocated money, they changed the figures mentioned in the cheque and drew excess money," a source said.
Following the detection of the corruption, so far three separate inquiry committees have been formed to probe the corruption and find out the culprits behind the misdeed.
Of the three committees, PGCB board of directors formed a committee while PGCB managing director formed another departmental committee.
Simultaneously, the Power Ministry also formed a committee to investigate into the allegation.
After unearthing the incident, the PGCB initially lodged an FIR with Gulshan Police Station (No-C-29/2010) in September this year.
PGCB Manager Md. Arshad Hossain, named an accused in the FIR, was arrested by the police. Before unearthing the misdeed, Arshad was promoted to the post of manager from deputy manager.
But, interestingly, Arshad was released from jail on bail shortly after his arrest. Now PGCB is unable to trace his whereabouts.
When contacted, Joint Secretary of the Power Ministry Mofazzal Hassain admitted about the case of misappropriation of money.
"We're conducting investigation. We're hopeful of identifying the persons involved in the wrongdoings," he said.
PGCB's acting Managing Director Rafiqul Alam said the departmental investigation identified 8-9 PGCB officials who were found to be involved in the misappropriation of PGCB money.
The officials are Arshad Hossain, Mahbub Ahmed (project director), former project director Ajit Chandra Das, general manager (project) Billal Hossain, Mozammel Hossain (Director P&D), former director Ruhul Amin, General Manager Md. Selim and DGM Belayet Hossain.
Alam said these officials were held responsible for making the financial transactions.
Sources said among the officials, Mozammel Hossain (Director P&D) is now one of the applicants for the top post of the PGCB.
Mozammel Hossain denied his involvement in embezzlement and claimed that his name was not supposed to be in the list of the people identified by the probe body for the incident.