The parliamentary standing committee on public accounts yesterday asked Rajuk, the city development authority, to prepare within one month a list of the buildings constructed in the capital violating laws.
The 15-member public accounts committee at its first meeting also asked Rajuk to initiate departmental action against its officials who were involved in destroying the files and allowed the realtors to construct high-rise buildings in prime locations in the capital.
According to a final report placed by the office of Comptroller and Auditor General at the meeting, the Rajuk officials had allowed the real estate firms to construct high-rise buildings, giving financial benefits of over Tk143 crore between 2005-06 and 2007-08.
The public works audit done from March 2007 to October 2009 found that a realtor was allowed to construct up to a maximum of six-storey building on a plot on the western side of Siddheshwari Girls School.
But the building inspector, authorised officer of Rajuk, allowed Advanced Technology Ltd to construct 18-storey building that gave the company a bounty of around Tk90 crore.
According to the paper, Rajuk had confessed its misdeeds.
The CAG report suggested that the government form a taskforce aimed at realising compensation from all the persons involved in corruption. Besides, the realtor should be blacklisted for constructing buildings in future.
“The committee has asked for a list of all the buildings, built in Dhaka in violation of the building construction rules 1996, within one month,” Abdus Shahid, a committee member, told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said Rajuk Chairman GM Joynal Abedin Bhuiyan sought more time for preparing such a list.
“Give us progress report within one month; then we will consider extending the deadline,” Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, the committee chairman, told the chairman.
The CAG report said Rajuk allowed Eastern Housing Company to construct 18-storey building beside the Moghbazar Kazi office. This law violation helped them earn over Tk29.37 crore.
In Purana Paltan area, Rajuk allowed a company to construct 18-storey building. The company made a profit of around Tk24 crore.
Abdus Shahid, the former chief whip, then raised the question what would happen to the buildings constructed in violation of the rules.
The chairman told the meeting that the committee had no mandate for recommending demolition of these buildings.
Committee members Mohammad Amanullah, AFM Ruhal Haque, Afsarul Amin, Begum Rebecca Momin, Md Shamsul Haque Tuku, Md Rustom Ali Farazi and Begum Wasika Ayesha Khan attended the meeting.
