ACC conducts simultaneous drives over four allegations including corruption in railway purchases

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has conducted four separate enforcement drives over allegations of irregularities, corruption and waste of public money in various government service sectors.

The ACC's public relations department confirmed the matter on Tuesday (10 November).

The drives were carried out over allegations of embezzlement in purchases at the Bangladesh Railway's Divisional Mechanical Engineer or Kamalapur Loco Shed. Reports were received of widespread corruption in the purchase of various equipment for the Dhaka Loco Shed store under the Divisional Mechanical Engineer/Loco/Kamalapur, Dhaka.

The drive was conducted with the assistance of the Bangladesh Railway headquarters over allegations of embezzling a large amount of public money through the purchase of fake and substandard equipment, along with various other irregularities.

Meanwhile, allegations have been raised that substandard bricks were laid on both sides of the road from Chowrangi intersection to Baniyapatti culvert in Panchagarh district town at a cost of about Tk 20 lakh. The bricks were removed just three months later.

The ACC's integrated district office in Thakurgaon conducted the drive over allegations of serious short-sightedness in taking up the project and waste of public money against the officials concerned and the contracting firm.

On the other hand, service seekers visiting the Bagerhat regional passport office are facing severe harassment and irregularities. Allegations have been received against the officials and employees concerned of collecting money beyond the fixed government fee in collusion with a broker syndicate, irregularities in accepting application forms, and misbehaviour with ordinary people.

The ACC district office in Bagerhat conducted an enforcement drive at the office to investigate the allegations.

In addition, allegations have been raised that the fixed estimate and schedule were not followed in the repair and maintenance work of the Lalpur-via-Bilmaria-Durduria rural road in Lalpur upazila of Natore. The integrated district office in Rajshahi conducted an enforcement drive over the specific allegation that public money was being wasted by using substandard construction materials in collusion between the contracting firm and the engineer concerned.

The ACC said that after analysing the detailed reports of the drives and the collected evidence, it will recommend necessary legal action against those involved.