Two decades old Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (Rajuk) is the first target of the drive against institutionalised corruption introduced as the second phase of the ongoing anti-graft campaign in an effort to bring necessary reforms to the government agency for making it a service oriented vibrant organisation.

Other government organisations, known as corrupted, will also be brought under the purge, but the Task Forces against Egregious Crimes and Corruption are giving priority to training their guns first on service oriented government agencies.

A government official said the public works department and organisations under the power sector are the next to undergo 'thorough' investigations, and the drive will advance gradually to get all the known corrupt government organisations reformed. The task force investigators already started digging into the corruption allegations against the public works department.

Twenty five officials under the four task forces assigned to investigate institutionalised corruption in Rajuk, have been working since the beginning of this month to find out the roots and nexus of graft in Rajuk. The task force staff are also tasked with the job of identifying persons in Rajuk offices who are involved in corruption.

"Rajuk is a through and through corrupt institution," observed a task force officer while talking to The Daily Star seeking anonymity.

"It is quite astonishing that starting from a typist of Rajuk to the highest official of the agency, almost everybody owns real estate in the capital," the task force official quipped.

KAM Harun, chairman of Rajuk, over the phone on Sunday night told The Daily Star, "The task forces are observing the activities of Rajuk and also checking if there had been any corruption or irregularities earlier."

Admitting that there had been corruption in Rajuk, the chairman added, "The task forces are looking for probable measures to check corruption and irregularities in Rajuk."

Four task force teams comprising officials from defence and different government organisations including the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) set up a camp in the Rajuk building on June 1, and are examining and scrutinising all official documents related to different projects including those of different real estate companies and other official files.

The issues being looked into by the task forces are irregularities in allocating plots, sales of government houses, nepotism, bribery, partisanship in Rajuk, and irregularities in the process of inviting tenders.

Besides looking into the issues, the task forces are also working to bring effective reforms to Rajuk so that corruptionists cannot get easy access to the government agency in the future.

Members of the four task forces have been investigating corruption of high profile suspects since February, but in addition to that they are now especially assigned to investigate institutionalised corruption in Rajuk.

Task force sources said before they initiated the investigation in February, around 16 thousand building construction plans had been pending for years for Rajuk's approval. Rajuk had been allegedly keeping the plans pending or unapproved just to harass people for bribes.

After the task forces had fixed a deadline for immediate disposal of all the pending cases by May 30, Rajuk deferred 2,300 construction plans while the rest were given approvals within the deadline. The agency also showed proper reasons for the deferment of cases in accordance with the directives given by the task forces.

The task force teams working to bring reforms to Rajuk pointed out to higher authorities that corruption in Rajuk could be checked if appointments to Rajuk were made transferable. As the appointments to Rajuk are non-transferable, corruption is widespread at almost all levels of the government institution. The task forces recommended bringing changes to the present circular in this regard.

According to the present provisions of Rajuk, its officials cannot be transferred anywhere. If Rajuk wants to transfer any official, consent of that official is required, the current provisions say.

A task force member said a proposal regarding bringing reforms to Rajuk has already been prepared. The proposal will be sent to the chief adviser for his approval through the ministries concerned, he added.

Structural reforms will also be brought to Rajuk and the task force teams are working to prepare a proposal in this regard.

The task forces have put special emphasis on unearthing how corruption has become institutionalised in Rajuk. They will also look into different forms of corruption that were being carried out in Rajuk at different levels including at the level of forwarding files and necessary documents to different departments like planning, estates, finance, building, inspection, and engineering.

"As far as we have investigated, every department under Rajuk has been found to be infested with systemic corruption. A list of about 50 corrupt Rajuk officials has already been prepared based on a survey," said a task force official.

"The list is expected to grow longer gradually," he added.

Established in 1987 Rajuk now has over 1,000 staff. The task force members observed that almost all the staff are somehow involved in corruption to one degree or another, and it would be an exception if any staff is found without any involvement in graft.

In the last five years Rajuk experienced the worst of corruption when almost every official was busy accumulating money by any possible means. So the period of the last five years has been given the highest priority for investigation. The investigators are being compelled to scrutinise files and documents of Rajuk dating back to 1989 to understand the workings and magnitude of corruption that has been plaguing the important government organisation.

The immediate past BNP-led alliance government prior to handing over power appointed 72 officials in different grades. The written and viva-voce examinations for the appointments were held on the same day on October 18 last year while the question paper was also the same for different grades, said a task force official.

The official also said the appointments were made flouting the rules only to get partisan persons appointed.

Corruption in Rajuk regarding sales of 18 government houses, allotments of 897 residential plots in Uttara under the third phase of allotments there, allotments of 48 industrial plots in Tongi, 50 plots in Banani, 50 more plots in Uttara, and the allotments for Media Palli in Tejgaon will also be looked into.

The task forces are also examining possible corruption in approving a plan for Bashundhara Group for creating housing plots on 1,249 acres of wetland in upscale Baridhara of the capital.