The office of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has found anomalies in payments of Tk 10 crore in excess to lawyers as 'fees' by the immediate past Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) during the last caretaker government, a parliamentary committee disclosed yesterday.

In a special report, the CAG also questioned payments of over Tk 6 crore to different intelligence agencies by the erstwhile commission as 'incentives' for boosting the anti-graft drive during the interim regime. Citing the report, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Undertakings yesterday recommended recovery of the Tk 16 crore from the immediate past ACC chief, two of its commissioners, and its erstwhile secretary and director general. "We asked to recover the looted public money from them by applying the provisions of the Public Demand Recovery Act 1913," Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, chief of the parliamentary committee, told reporters after its meeting in Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban. He said the accused paid the lawyers the excess amount of money violating laws, so they are responsible for financial damage.

The committee chief said the district administration could issue notifications to recover the money from the persons responsible. He said the erstwhile ACC also wasted over Tk 6 crore to conduct 'so-called intelligence activities'. Talking to The Daily Star after the meeting, committee member Mayeen Uddin Khan Badal said the money was paid to the intelligence agencies as 'incentives for their work'. "We examined the special report of the Comptroller and Auditor General that detected the irregularities in payments of money to lawyers and intelligence agencies," Alamgir said. During the anti-graft drive, the immediate past ACC appointed a number of lawyers with high remunerations for defending its cases in courts. The Cabinet Division on June 2 in a report placed to the parliamentary body also said it was not correct ethically to keep expensive lawyers appointed for a long time instead of taking steps to have a permanent prosecution team for the ACC.

Alamgir yesterday said the parliamentary committee also recommended taking actions against those who were responsible for taking foreign assistance violating government rules. He said the committee also found that the immediate past ACC did not pay value added tax to the government for purchasing vehicles and computers, without floating invitations for tenders. "We asked the ACC to look into the matter, so such incidents cannot occur again," he added. He said the incumbent ACC had to replace 100 officials, appointed by its predecessor, who had been getting paid without doing anything. "Public money was wasted that way. We asked the Cabinet Division to take action against the persons who were responsible for making such idle appointments," he added.

The parliamentary body in June this year summoned former ACC chief Lt Gen (retd) Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, and the incumbent two commissioners -- M Habibur Rahman and Abul Hasan Manzur Mannan -- to appear before the committee to discuss the activities of the immediate past commission. Following their refusal to appear before the committee, the parliamentary body on June 2 met Speaker Abdul Hamid and requested him to take steps to ensure the trio's appearance. But the speaker has yet to resolve the matter. Asked about a follow up on the matter, Alamgir said the committee's decision regarding the summons remains unchanged and the three must appear before it. The committee yesterday also discussed the status of implementation of its recommendations on Wasa, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, and Rajuk for making the government agencies more dynamic and service oriented.

-Daily Star