A Tk20cr software package acquired to bring transparency to the process of planning schedules for pilots and crew has never been used by the national flag carrier.
Some senior officials are unwilling to use the automated system because the manual system can be manipulated, making it helpful for gold smuggling, sources in the airline said.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines’ automated crew and pilot scheduling system has lain idle since it was purchased three years ago.
Following a major bust last week against senior Biman officials connected to gold smuggling, the board of Biman Bangladesh Airlines decided to use the automated system at an urgent meeting on Saturday night.
Earlier, in a 12-hour operation, detectives arrested five members of the smuggling racket including three Biman high-ups – Captain Abu Mohammad Aslam Shaheed, the pilot of an aircraft and chief of Biman’s planning and scheduling, Emdad Hossain, deputy general manager of flight services and Tozammel Hossain, manager of scheduling.
The other two arrested were Mahmudul Haque Palash, an influential contractor known to have close ties with top officials at Biman and Md Harunur Rashid, owner of a money exchange firm in Uttara.
Biman sources said Mahmudul Haque Palash, the godson of Biman chairman Air Marshal (retd) Jamal Uddin Ahmed, manipulated the schedules of the pilots and crews together with Mohammad Aslam Shaheed, Emdad Hossain and Tozammel Hossain.
“They made between Tk10 to Tk50 lakh every flight from Dubai and Jeddah,” a senior officer said, on condition of anonymity.
The gang bought schedules of different routes but their main target was Dubai and Jeddah.
The Dhaka Tribune yesterday found Biman officers engaged in a series of meetings at Biman Bhaban over concern with the detective list.
Biman officials, requesting anonymity, said after the detention of Palash and the three high officials, no one was safe and anyone might be detained.
“Palash, Mohammad Aslam Shaheed, Emdad Hossain and Tozammel Hossain never thought they would be arrested. They sometimes told us they were untouchable,” another officer said.
At Saturday’s meeting, the board of directors discussed the current situation, a senior Biman official told the Dhaka Tribune.
“We discussed lots of issues at the meeting but decided not to make a statement to the media yet,” said advocate A F M Mesbahuddin, a board member, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Biman chairman Jamal Uddin Ahmed or some board members would meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina within a short time to get her direction about the issue, sources said.
Biman plans to form a probe committee, sources added.
In the mean time, the civil aviation and tourism ministry has formed a one-member committee to probe Biman in the wake of its officials’ alleged links to gold smuggling.
An additional secretary of the ministry will lead the one-member body, Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Rashed Khan Menon said.
“I am sure that not all officials and employees of Biman are corrupt and every one of them is not suspected in this investigation. So there is nothing to be worried about,” he said.
“But we want to go for tough auction against corrupt officers,” Menon added.
The new committee will submit its report after reviewing the probe report submitted by another probe committee formed earlier, the minister added.
The deadline for the new committee to submit its report however could not be known immediately.
Biman has suspended the detained officials and they will face divisional cases against them, board meeting sources said.
