Tk 33 lakh pocketed by showing false bills?

Leaders of BNP and its front organisations sought sanctions for "fake institutions" and the officials released the amounts without scrutiny following recommendations and lobbying by local ruling party lawmakers, it is alleged.

The disbursed amounts included Tk 15.45 lakh in fiscal 2002-03 and Tk 18 lakh in fiscal 2003-04 for different programmes on national occasions and development works at educational, sports, social welfare and religious institutions, sources claimed.

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An amount of Tk 10 lakh was misappropriated by showing those spent for 44 'fake' organisations in Rajshahi city, Tk 5 lakh against 22 institutions in Paba upazila and Tk 6 lakh against 26 in Charghat upazila. Another Tk 5000 was shown disbursed in the name of the Executive Director of Biswa Sahittya Kendra in Rajshahi in 2002-03, but there no such post.

Amounts ranging from Tk 5000 to Tk 20,000 were shown spent for 42 such other organisations at Puthia, Durgapur, Bagmara and Godagari upazilas and Tk 10,000 was shown spent for repair of Charghat Dak Banglaw (rest house) though it was not repaired.

Organisations like Choto Pukuria Jatiyatabadi Jubo Dal and Puthia Shaheed Zia Smiriti Shangha were also included in last fiscal's donation list.

When contacted, Chief Executive Officer of the District Council Shankar Kumar Das denied the allegations.

He however said, "In cases of government grants, MPs recommended in writing or told (us) on phone for sanctioning money and we approved applications".

"We have no scope for misappropriating money as expenditures depend on decisions of project implementation committees for which lawmakers are responsible", Das said.

The Daily Star obtained copies of recommendations by the Post and Telecommunications Minister Aminul Haque but he could not be contacted for comment.

Following the allegations, the Local Government and Rural Development Ministry sent a two-member audit team comprising Paritreswar Roy and Abdul Bari to look into the allegations.

The team started investigation on August 18 and has already found many "objections", sources claimed. The audit is going on, they said.

The ministry also sent a letter to the Rajshahi Divisional Commissioner last month for a through probe into the allegations, but the probe has not been started yet.

Rajshahi divisional commissioner Mosleh Uddin told The Daily Star that he was yet get any such order from the ministry, but sources inside his office showed a copy of the letter and said the deputy director of local government was asked for investigation.

When contacted, Deputy Director Asit Kumar Mukutmony of the Local Government Ministry said he would start investigation after the audit team completes its work.