All 47 dev project chairmen to face cases on charge of misappropriation

All the 147 chairmen of development projects of the government's rural infrastructure development programme in Saidpur upazila under the district are facing cases on charge of misappropriating the money and wheat they had received for implementing the projects in 2010-2012 fiscal year.

“I issued notice twice to all the project chairmen to submit relevant papers of their projects by July 9 or deposit double of the allocated money and food grains within the timeframe. As none followed my directive, I have no way but to file case in court soon as per government rule," said Shafiqul Islam, upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Saidpur yesterday.

According to the office of the project implementation officer (PIO) in Saidpur, 147 development projects were undertaken in Saidpur upazila to be implemented with Tk 41 lakh test relief money and 46 tonnes of wheat in the second phase of rural infrastructure development programme in 2010-2011 fiscal year.

The project chairmen received their allocation in advance, according to the sizes of projects that included renovation works of rural roads, mosques, temples, eidgahs, educational institutions, offices of different clubs, cultural and sports organisations etc in all five unions and local municipality in the upazila.

As per government rule, the project chairman concerned should submit completion statement, vouchers, bills, master roll sheets and so on to the PIO office within 90 days on completion of the project work, but they did not submit the relevant documents in last three years," said Shafiul Islam, PIO of Saidpur.

As audit teams from disaster management and relief ministry failed to get relevant project documents when they came to Saidpur for verification, they came to the conclusion that the projects were not implemented and the allocated money and wheat were misappropriated.

Asked by the ministry, the UNO is taking action against the project chairmen as per law, the PIO said.

However, several project chairmen talking to this correspondent denied the allegation of misappropriating project money and wheat and claimed that they had submitted all the documents in time.

Chairman of Telipara eidgah project who received Tk 20 thousand for it said, “Saidpur PIO office might have lost the submitted documents as three years have passed. Now we are harassed as officials are trying to hide their irregularities.”