Biman Cargo Handling: ACC sues 16 for graft
The top authorities of Biman Bangladesh Airlines had clearly instructed its officials to realise an additional charge for handling each kilogram of incoming and outgoing cargo carried by non-scheduled freighters.
But 16 Biman officials, including its former and incumbent general managers of the cargo department, didn’t realise the additional charge against 13.99 crore kg goods. The items were carried on 4,115 non-scheduled freighters in five years since 2012.
Instead of realising the additional charge, the officials in connivance with each other and through misuse of power embezzled over Tk 118 crore, according to the FIR of a case, filed yesterday by the Anti-Corruption Commission against the officials.
A non-scheduled freighter flies without a prior announcement, Biman officials said.
The graft watchdog yesterday arrested two accused, Mohammad Ali Ahsan, former general manager (cargo), and Iftekhar Hossain Chowdhury, former manager (export) of the cargo department, from the city’s Segunbagicha.
Arif Ullah, acting GM (cargo), and Fazlul Haq, assistant manager (commercial) of the cargo department, are the two accused still working Biman.
The other accused are former assistant managers (commercial) Shahidul Islam, Aminul Haq Bhuiyan, Lutfe Jamal, Mosharrof Hossain Talukder, Rajib Hasan, Nasir Uddin Talukder, Anup Kumar Barua, KN Alam, Syed Ahmed Patwari, and Monir Ahmed Majumder, former manager (import) AKM Manjurul Haq, and former assistant manager (commercial) Md Shahjahan.
ACC Deputy Director Nasir Uddin filed the case with its integrated district office. The Daily Star has obtained a copy of the first information report (FIR).
The FIR says the Biman in its meeting on May 24, 2012, had decided to realise an additional charge for handling each kg of cargo carried by non-scheduled air freighters. The additional charge was between $0.1068 and $0.1869.
The Biman authorities informed the GM (cargo) and other officials concerned about the decision and directed them to follow it. But the ACC probe found that apart from a few, the officials of the cargo department didn’t realise money.
The investigation revealed that the cargo officials didn’t realise Tk 118 crore as additional handling charge from 2012 to 2017.
Biman’s internal audit on the cargo department also found misappropriation of money from July 2015 to June 2017. This caused revenue loss to the government.
Since spreading its wings in 1972, the national airliner incurred huge losses in most of the years due to widespread corruption and mismanagement, aviation experts said.
Except the fiscal years 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17, Biman counted losses in six out of the last nine fiscal years, said sources at the company.
In 2007, the then military-backed caretaker government had turned Biman into a public limited company with an aim to make it a profitable venture.
The civil aviation ministry recently revealed widespread corruption and irregularities in different sectors of the national airliner, including recruitment of pilots, sale of tickets, operation of non-scheduled freighter and taking lease of aircraft.
Following the revelation, the ministry recently made a move to overhaul Biman’s total management and make it a profitable organisation, Civil Aviation Ministry Secretary Mohibul Haque told The Daily Star.The national carrier now operates flights on 17 international and seven domestic routes with a fleet of 16 aircraft. Six of the planes are on lease.
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