Officials-middlemen nexus rules land registration process

Well-knit syndicates of brokers and middlemen surround land-registry offices, subjecting people to harassment and extra payments, service-receivers alleged.
Those who seek services from the registry offices have to make an additional expenditure of at least Tk 6,000 each to complete the registration process, they said.
The amount, in some cases, is much higher for those who don't have necessary documents, such as certified copies of land-deeds and previous tax records on property.
For getting faster registration services, many recipients find no other option but to come into contract with the middlemen found in abundance at the premises of registry offices. The middlemen allegedly have prior arrangements with officials concerned and enjoy easy access to the offices.
While visiting a number of land-registry offices in Dhaka district, this scribe saw middlemen, mostly aged between 20 and 35, making verbal agreements with the service-seekers. A portion of the speed money is taken in advance to initiate the process.
The sop is then distributed among officials and employees of the registry office concerned, peons, document writers, record copiers, associations and a section of policemen, said a few brokers on condition of keeping their identities a secret.
They said the middlemen - land registry officials nexus has been developed only to dodge eyes of the media persons, anti-graft officials and conscious citizens of the country. With the newly-developed system, no one needs to take bribe openly.   "We help people complete registration procedures in a faster way. So, we do nothing wrong," said one such middleman.
The registration procedure is completed in league with officials and employees of the sub-registrar offices, document writers, record copiers and bank branches concerned.
"And each character in the system like sub-registrar, clerk, document writer, record copier and office peon gets their share from the 'speed money'  in the final hour of the office time," another middleman said.
"So, everybody knows what we're doing."
They, however, declined to disclose the percentage of the distribution of kickbacks.
The activities of the offices of the associations of deed-writers, class-III employees and copiers are being financed with a portion of the speed money, said Shamim Al Mamun, a record copier at a sub-registrar office.
The middlemen often subject the service seekers to harassment. The correspondent came across a number of gloomy faces at the registry-building complex in Tejgaon, where most of the capital's registry offices are housed.    
Talking to the FE, a service-receiver, Kamrul Islam, said he paid Tk 4,000 out of the committed Tk 6,000 to a middleman 10 days ago to complete all the registration procedures that include searching documents and collecting certified copy.
"He (the broker) had asked me to come after five days of the contract. On my arrival, he asked for remaining portion of the amount that I paid to him. Then he sought another five days to complete the initial proceedings," he said.
And now the middleman is demanding Tk 500 more, citing various complexities in collecting those documents.
Even employees of the bank where receivers deposit pay orders on all government charges do demand extra money, ranging between Tk 20 and Tk 40, beyond the rate of commission.
Asked about the additional charging, a cashier of the bank said they did not demand any extra amount. Some of the service-recipients, being satisfied with the service, pay a small amount of money for having tea and snacks.
Muhammad Kabir Hussain, Manager of the Sonali Bank at its Dhaka Registration Complex branch, however, denied the allegation of taking additional charges. He said they just take commission against pay-order deposition fixed by the bank authorities.
During a visit to Savar land-registry office, which became top in Dhaka district in terms of land property sales and transfers in recent months, a donation box was found placed on the table of the sub-registrar.
One person, who stood beside the sub-registrar, was collecting donation amounting to Tk 30 to Tk 50 from the service-recipients.
When asked, Sub-Registrar Eskander Ali said the donation was being collected for the development of a mosque. "No one is forced to pay," he said.
But the official just kept mum when asked about the legality of collecting donation inside a public office.
Talking to the FE correspondent, a vendor, who have been selling various products in and around the sub-registry office for the last several years, said everyone in the land registry office gets their portion of the kickbacks at the end of the day.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of the Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB), said land administration is the third-most vulnerable sector to corruption after labour migration and law enforcement.
"People have no option but to suffer because of institutionalisation of such corruption," he said.

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