ACC detects massive illegal ‘trade’

The Anti-Corruption Commission on Wednesday detected massive irregularities including collecting additional money and fund embezzlement in the process of issuing trade licenses by city corporations across the country.
Eight teams of the Anti-Corruption Commission, ACC in short, under its enforcement unit detected the irregularities after they conducted separate drives at the city corporations, said ACC deputy director M Masudur Rahman.
He said that drives were conducted at both Dhaka North and South City Corporations, Chattogram City Corporation, Cumilla City Corporation, Rajshahi City Corporation, Sylhet City Corporation, Khulna City Corporation and Rangpur City Corporation.
ACC public relations officer Pranab Kumar Bhatacharjee told reporters that the drives were conducted following some recent complaints submitted with the commission, through its anti-graft hotline 106, from service seekers.
He said during the drive at DSCC, its revenue zone 1 office assistant Mohammad Ali demanded Tk 15,000 from a service seeker while the official fee of a trade license was only Tk 4,500.
He said that the ACC sleuths caught Mohammad Ali and handed over to the chief revenue officer, or CRO, for taking necessary action against the employee.
During the drive, service seekers said that a nexus forged by outsiders and a section of DSCC employees was currently in control of the process of issuing and renewing of trade licenses, the ACC official said.
During the drive at DNCC, the ACC team found some outsiders at the office of the chief revenue officer. They were functioning as employees of DNCC, the ACC official testified.
Later, the CRO failed to give explanation as to the reason why there were outsiders at his office, Pranab said.
Following the incident, the team asked the CRO to submit a written explanation to the commission soon.
New Age staff correspondent reported that a team of the commission conducted a drive at trade license department of Chattogram City Corporation at Andarkilla Chattogram. 
Later it also conducted a drive in the city’s New Market area which falls under the revenue circle 4.
During the drive, it examined different documents of the applicants of trade licenses. They found that officials have been charging extra fees from applicants and there was a dearth of license books, which together intensified the sufferings of the applicants, said ACC Chattogram 1 deputy director Lutful Kabir. 
He said that the trade license department of the city corporation has not been keeping proper records and inspectors have been taking cash money, charging extra for the issuance of licenses, etc.
There is a lack of coordination between the head office and the circle office of the trade license wing. As a result proper amount of revenue has not been deposited.
The ACC official said that many service seekers alleged that they have been taking two or three times more charges for licenses. 
After detailed investigation ACC would submit a report to its superior authority as the team collected some documents from revenue department in this regard, he said.
During the drive at Cumilla City Corporation, the ACC found that the city corporation does not maintain any register of collecting fees from the service seekers against the trade licenses issued, Pranab said.
He said that the officials of the city corporation also failed to show the documents of depositing the money in the treasury.
The city corporation officials gave commitment to the ACC team that they would send the documents to the ACC soon, Pranab said.
The ACC teams at Rajshahi, Khulna and Sylhet also found evidences of collecting extra money in addition to the fees from the service seekers.
There are 12 city corporations in the country and the corporations issuing several thousands of fresh trade licenses every year while they are also renewing several thousand annually.
Trade license is required to conduct businesses by individuals or companies. It is the authorisation to start a business issued by the local government.
 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net