Govt officials admit negligence in haor embankment project
Four top government officials "confessed" to negligence and irregularities in the construction of embankments that collapsed causing flash flood in the haor regions, an official of ACC said today.
“They all admitted to negligence and irregularities in construction of the embankment,” Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Director General Md Munir Chowdhury said.
The ACC official was briefing reporters after questioning Water Development Board’s Director General Jahangir Kabir, Additional Director General Abdul Hai Baqui and Superintendent Engineer Harunur Rashid and water resources ministry’s Joint Secretary Khalilur Rahman.
The four were questioned inside ACC office today for nearly two-and-half hours starting from 12:30pm. At 2:50pm, they came out from the office and went away without speaking to reporters.
The ACC, on April 21 last year, sent a letter to the Water Resources Ministry for an investigation report on allegations of corruption in haor embankments within ten working days.
About 10 months later, the ministry sent their reply to the ACC, according to the sources at ACC.
After flash floods washed away crops on thousands of hectares of land in the haors due to damage to embankments, farmers brought allegations that the WDB did not repair them in time.
The ACC is investigating to find out whether there were any irregularities or corruption in building and mending embankments in the haor belt.
On May 2, three engineers of the Water Development Board were suspended over allegations of corruption in building and repairing embankments in the haor region.