7 Titas, Desa men have only Tk 5 lakh

Seven Titas Gas and Dhaka Electricity Supply Authority (Desa) staffs yesterday voluntarily disclosed before the Truth and Accountability Commission (Tac) of having ill-gotten wealth worth only about Tk 5 lakh.
Meanwhile, Tac has sent a list of five people to ACC to unfreeze their bank accounts, movable and immovable property so that they can deposit their confessed ill-gotten money to the state.
Besides, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has initiated a move to dispose of the backlog of 2,963 allegations and cases pending with the commission since 1986.
In the last two days, 15 more graft suspects applied to ACC to face Tac for disclosing their ill-gotten wealth voluntarily.
Sources in Tac however deny mentioning any details about the Tac and Desa officials.
With yesterday's hearing, Tac has so far heard disclosure from 64 corruption-suspects, mostly government staffs, and primarily ordered them to deposit about Tk 15.31 crore to the state.
The body has so far heard about 30 Titas officials who confessed to having ill-gotten property worth about Tk 30 lakh only, Tac sources say.
An accounts assistant told the commission he had earned Tk 25,000 illegally, the lowest amount willingly reported so far by 49 corrupt-suspects.
But a taskforce investigation into corruption at Titas in February reveals massive anomalies at the state-owned company.
It found that 135 of its staffs, high officials and minions alike are millionaires, owning on average at least Tk 1 crore each.
The National Coordination Committee (NCC) on corruption and serious crimes referred 107 corrupt Titas staffs to the commission for redemption without sending along the investigation reports.
The NCC only mentioned the amount of money the staffs confessed to having as ill-gotten wealth.
ACC CASES AND ALLEGATIONS
The ACC has formed two separate committees to scrutinise and find out the allegations and cases that should be look into.
"We have formed two committees to scrutinise allegations and cases pending with the commission based on their importance. The committee, then, will recommend action to be taken regarding the matter," said ACC Director General (Admin) Col Hanif Iqbal.
Of the total number, 1,989 allegations, filed between 1989 and 2007, were not disposed of and under inquiry at the commission, while investigation of 1,049 cases, filed by the commission between 1986 and 2007 against government officers and employees, remain pending.
As many as 1,801 allegations were filed during the time of Bureau of Anti-Corruption (Bac) and 113 after the ACC was established in 2004.
Of the total cases, 913 were filed during the time of Bac and 136 by ACC since 2004.
The five cases sent by Tac include four former and incumbent government staffs and wife of one of them. All the five cases were under investigation at ACC.
ACC sources say most of the fresh 15 clemency-seekers are government officials, both retired and incumbent, while three are from other professions.
The government officials are from Desa, revenue office, sub-registrars, Titas officials, and three of their wives.
The sources say the three from other professions are former adviser Justice Fazlul Huq's son Afzal Hossain, son-in-law Tariqul Rahman Prince and one of his employees Abdul Malek.
The ACC has so far sent 61 corruption suspects to Tac following their applications seeking clemency.
As Tariqul Rahman Prince was sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment for not submitting wealth statement on August 21, he would be considered ineligible for making voluntary disclosure, the sources add.
"In accordance with the law, the convicted will not be allowed to make voluntary disclosure before Tac," said Tac Chairman Justice Habibur Rahman Khan.