Irregularities in Rajuk
Sunday, 26 August 2007
The Rajdhani Unnyan Kartipakha (Rajuk), the agency that approves architectural and structural designs of commercial and residential buildings and monitors the compliance of the building code, has been a hotbead of irregularities. Whoever had the opportunity of visiting the Rajuk even for once could feel the power of speed money there. Starting from the people at the top down to despatch clerks with a few exceptions would not do anything unless and until their palms are greased adequately.
In this context, the report published by the Bangladesh Chapter of the Transparency International (TI), the global graft watchdog, at a function late last week has not revealed anything new barring the estimated -- it will be befitting to call it guesstimated -- transactions of bribe money worth between Tk. 150 million and Tk. 200 million a year over the approval of plans. However, the research fellow of the TIB who presented the report admitted that the estimate was a 'conservative' one and the actual amount would be much higher. Since the TIB itself is not satisfied with the estimate on the bribe money, it should not have mentioned any figure. Unfortunately, a good number of research organizations and a few economists are found to be much prone to coming out with notional statistics.
The TIB study has also revealed that 90 per cent of the buildings in areas under Rajuk's jurisdiction have been constructed without following the Building Construction Rules, 1996. Such deviations have been more in case of commercial buildings than the residential ones and nothing has happened beyond the knowledge of the Rajuk officials. This issue had been raised by the people concerned and the media while the Rajuk went for demolition of unauthorised sections of many commercial buildings in different parts of the city, including Gulshan, Banani and Dhanmondi and Motijheel, recently. Take the case of Rangs Bhaban. The owner of the plot was given permission by the higher court to construct a six-storey building. But he raised it up to 21-storey. Since such violation of court order did take place openly at a busy traffic intersection of the capital city, the Rajuk cannot pass the buck on to others for its failure to stop such unauthorized construction right in time just by citing the reason of political pressure on it.
The TIB report noted that Rajuk approval process was so complicated and time-consuming that most people were compelled to enter into deals with a section of Rajuk officials to get their plans approved. It could be that the Rajuk has kept the approval process complicated deliberately with the objective of forcing people to pay bribes. It is welcome development that the interim government has initiated special efforts to reduce the level of harassment that the people have been going through for decades by taking actions against corrupt officials and employees there. But, allegedly, there are efforts by a section of Rajuk officials to torpedo the good move of the government. As an antidote to such evil design, the government should consider making the approval process easy and less time consuming. It might even fix time-limits for giving permission to construction plans, depending on the location of plots and height of buildings. Besides, the letters of approval need to be accompanied by copies of Building Construction Rules because of the fact many people are not aware of the existence of such rules.
In this context, the report published by the Bangladesh Chapter of the Transparency International (TI), the global graft watchdog, at a function late last week has not revealed anything new barring the estimated -- it will be befitting to call it guesstimated -- transactions of bribe money worth between Tk. 150 million and Tk. 200 million a year over the approval of plans. However, the research fellow of the TIB who presented the report admitted that the estimate was a 'conservative' one and the actual amount would be much higher. Since the TIB itself is not satisfied with the estimate on the bribe money, it should not have mentioned any figure. Unfortunately, a good number of research organizations and a few economists are found to be much prone to coming out with notional statistics.
The TIB study has also revealed that 90 per cent of the buildings in areas under Rajuk's jurisdiction have been constructed without following the Building Construction Rules, 1996. Such deviations have been more in case of commercial buildings than the residential ones and nothing has happened beyond the knowledge of the Rajuk officials. This issue had been raised by the people concerned and the media while the Rajuk went for demolition of unauthorised sections of many commercial buildings in different parts of the city, including Gulshan, Banani and Dhanmondi and Motijheel, recently. Take the case of Rangs Bhaban. The owner of the plot was given permission by the higher court to construct a six-storey building. But he raised it up to 21-storey. Since such violation of court order did take place openly at a busy traffic intersection of the capital city, the Rajuk cannot pass the buck on to others for its failure to stop such unauthorized construction right in time just by citing the reason of political pressure on it.
The TIB report noted that Rajuk approval process was so complicated and time-consuming that most people were compelled to enter into deals with a section of Rajuk officials to get their plans approved. It could be that the Rajuk has kept the approval process complicated deliberately with the objective of forcing people to pay bribes. It is welcome development that the interim government has initiated special efforts to reduce the level of harassment that the people have been going through for decades by taking actions against corrupt officials and employees there. But, allegedly, there are efforts by a section of Rajuk officials to torpedo the good move of the government. As an antidote to such evil design, the government should consider making the approval process easy and less time consuming. It might even fix time-limits for giving permission to construction plans, depending on the location of plots and height of buildings. Besides, the letters of approval need to be accompanied by copies of Building Construction Rules because of the fact many people are not aware of the existence of such rules.