Bird Deterring Machines Purchase
CAAB refuses to provide ACC with docs
The Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh (CAAB) refused to provide documents to the Anti-Corruption Commission for its ongoing inquiry into alleged corruption in purchasing bird deterring machines and some other equipments from 2009 to 2011.
The CAAB did not provide documents to the ACC which asked it to submit some relevant documents into the inquiry within July 20, an ACC director told New Age.
According the a notice, served to CAAB by the ACC, the aviation authority purchased bird deterring machines worth of Tk 9 crore in 2009, friction tester machines worth of Tk 8 crore in 2010 and aeronautical weather observing system worth of Tk 9 crore in 2011 for Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
The commission suspected that a section of CAAB officials and some contractor firms had embezzled around Tk 20.5 crore through over-invoicing.
Earlier a week ago, the commission again asked the CAAB to provide documents on the above-mentioned purchases as the CAAB chairman in a letter requested the ACC to drop the ongoing inquiries into the corruption and irregularities
of CAAB.
The commission wanted to take legal action against CAAB under the Section 19 (3) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act-2004 if they denied providing the documents, ACC officials said.
Section 19 (3) of the ACC Act provides for three years in jail and finical penalty for ignoring ACC
notice.
According to the CAAB, in 2013, Biman Bangladesh Airlines alone went through 15 incidents of bird strikes at the country’s prime airport. There were six such incidents in 2012 and 10 in 2011.
Since 1988, over 255 people have been killed worldwide as a result of bird strikes, according to the Bird Strike Committee of USA.
-With New Age input