No services at Rajuk without bribe: TIB

Transparency International Bangladesh at a press conference on Wednesday said that people do not get any service from the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha without paying bribe.

‘Rajuk becomes synonym of bribe,’ said TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman at the press conference held at its office in the capital on Wednesday to unveil its report on Rajuk’s good governance challenge and way out.

The report unveiled that Rajuk officials take bribe from Tk 2,000 to Tk 4 lakh from individuals for issuing land use clearance, approving building construction plan and other services while realtors are compelled to pay Tk 2,000 to Tk two crore in bribe for necessary services.

The report said that Rajuk officials collect bribe up to Tk 40 lakh from realtors for issuing building construction permission while the official fee was Tk 83,000 to Tk 3,65,000. For more than 10 storied building and for special housing projects, the realtors need to pay up to Tk 2 crore as bribe, the report said. The bribe money is distributed among the employees and officials of all tiers, added the report.

Alongside taking bribe from service seekers, the senior officials at Rajuk also take bribe from their subordinates to give promotion and transfer.

Rajuk employees have to pay Tk 2 lakh to Tk 2.5 lakh for transfer and Tk 30,000 to Tk 1 crore for promotion.

Iftekharuzzaman said that people have to pay bribe to get services from Rajuk but all the officials were not corrupt.

He said that the agency’s monitoring and development control authority has turned into a commercial organisation and now fails to perform its core duty.

‘Formation of separate development control agency is recommended as Rajuk became a profit making organisation,’ he said.

To reform Rajuk, TIB placed a 14-point recommendation which also included reformation of Rajuk’s executive board in adding experts in the board, clarifying all the ambiguities remaining in the rules specifically in case of quota for different persons in allocation of plot and flat.

Iftekharuzzaman said that wealth statement of Rajuk officials should be made public and updated regularly to check corruption.

TIB researchers Fatema Afroz and Farhana Rahman presented the report.

Housing and public works minister SM Rezaul Karim in his reaction to the report said that the TIB had raised some allegations against Rajuk which were ‘baseless and motivated’.

‘The allegations are not true. These are baseless and motivated allegations against a big government organisation like Rajuk,’ he told reporters at his office.

The minister said actions were already taken against at least 92 Rajuk officials and employees for their involvement during his one-year in office. The situation had now changed, he said.

The minister claimed that the government was taking all out measures against allegations of corruption.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net