The Anti-Corruption Commission is scrutinising a graft allegation against three top officials of the Power Division, including its Secretary Monowar Islam, on charges of “embezzling” a huge sum of money, an ACC official has said.
Seeking anonymity, the deputy director-level official said the commission recently received an allegation against Power Division Secretary Monowar Islam, Additional Secretary Taposh Kumer Ray and Joint Secretary (development) Anowar Hossain, of embezzling money from donations that was given for celebrating the “Achievement of 10,000MW power generation milestone” and observing the “National Electricity Week 2013.”
To celebrate both the programmes, the ministry received around Tk10 crore in donations, among which, more than half was embezzled by the three officials, the allegation said.
The donations included Tk4 crore from different government organisations including Bangladesh Power Development Board, Power Grid Company of Bangladesh, Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited, Dhaka Power Distribution Company, Electricity Generation Company of Bangladesh, Ashuganj Power Station Company Limited, and Rural Power Company Limited. The other Tk6 crore came from different private organizations, including Summit Group, Orion Group and S Alam Group.
Though Tk10 crore was collected to observe the programmes, only Tk3-4 crore was spent by the Power Division officials and the rest of the money was embezzled by the three officials, the allegation read.
A commission panel was now scrutinising the allegation, and if the panel found evidences of irregularity, the commission will approve a formal probe against the Power Division officials, said the ACC official.