Dhanmondi Lake, owned by Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), has been leased to three organizations for the last 18 years. Although the lease agreement ended two years ago, DSCC authorities are yet to take any preparation for a new lease, citing complexities.
A government audit report found that three organizations owe the government around Tk1.82 crore in unpaid dues from the previous lease period. However, no action was taken by the city corporation to recover the unpaid dues.
At the same time, the earnings from the lease have not been deposited to the city corporation fund and no accounts have been kept of the payments.
The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General has raised serious objections at these irregularities.
The government audit report in 2017 mentioned that DSCC, under the Local Government Rural Development (LGRD) ministry, has not collected timely dues or lease money from the lessees of Dhanmondi Lake under its Zone-1 during the fiscal year 2016-17. Although, DSCC incurred a loss of Tk1.82 crore, the respective sum is yet to be recovered and the amount of total dues are expected to have grown bigger over the past years.
The audit department has said that the unpaid dues must be collected as soon as possible from the lessees and deposited, through a chalan, into the corporation’s bank account. The audit office must be notified afterwards with copies of the bank statement of the transaction.
As per the report, the Dhanmondi Lake, over an area of 85.6 acres, is being run by three companies: Monami International, Chilies Monami JB and Dynamic Food Court. Of the three institutions, Monami and Chilies are owned by Kabir Hossain while Dynamic is owned by Mirza Shahrukh Jalil.
The audit report also mentions that the area has been under a lease by the same individuals or organizations since 2002, but the lease money has not being collected timely. The DSCC also has no register to record the payment of the lease, which makes it difficult to determine the actual picture of the outstanding dues.
The receipt being used while collecting lease money also does not mention for which month the payment is being paid for. The amount collected was also not deposited to the main accounts of the city corporation, and instead landed into a current account of Sonali Bank’s Nagar Bhaban branch.
Thus, the amount gets omitted from the city corporation’s budget or profit and loss account.
DSCC officials said the Dhanmondi Lake has been divided into eight sectors and was being governed by commercial entities on a monthly pay basis. Sector 1 is governed by Messrs Monami International, Sector 3 and 7 by Dynamic Food Court and Sector 2, 4 and 5 by Chilies Monami JB.
Sector 6 has not been leased out for security issues due to its proximity to Bangabandhu Museum. Sector 8 was formed for security and cleaning activities for the entire lake and its adjourning areas.
DSCC officials of the areas concerned said Sector-1 was leased for Tk2,58,750, Sector-2 for Tk1,34,750, Sector-3 for Tk2,01,250, Sector-4 and 5 for Tk2,58,750, and Sector-7 for Tk4,02,500 on a monthly-payment basis. Altogether, DSCC’s treasury is expected to receive Tk15,13,750 per month.
DSCC sources said the lake was designed with car parks, restaurants, sitting plaza, public toilets, skating arena, children’s park and many other facilities. The park was leased with the aim that the lessees will collect fixed revenues from these services and the funds will be used for the maintenance of the park.
However, the lessees have placed additional shops and car parks in the park and continued to avoid paying the monthly dues to the city corporation.
When asked, Zahid Hossain, administration manager of Monami International and Chilies Monami JB, said: “There are many complications regarding this, we have not been given several things promised to us; the parking area is often closed and the children’s park area has also not been handed over properly.”
“We wanted to handover the lease to the city corporation, but they did not respond; there are many areas here which have occupied by people with political links,” said the manager.
“If we cannot recover the money we invested, how will we run a business?”
He said they have reapplied for the lease but the city corporation was yet to respond in this regard. He also claimed that they have no unpaid dues with the city corporation.
Contacted over the telephone, Dynamic Food Court owner Mirza Shahrukh Jalil said: “I cannot say anything now. I am at a meeting.”
Being queried on this matter, DSCC Executive Engineer for Regional Area -1 Mohammad Shafiullah said: “There are two committees to oversee the activities of Dhanmondi Lake. Our committee is headed by our chief executive engineer while the other is led by a senior secretary from the LGRD ministry. Our committee has sent a resolution regarding the lease to the other committee. We are yet to receive a decision from the committee.
“There are many problems regarding the lake. We are trying to solve them. We have already employed 100 security guards for the lake.”