Nearly eight lakh litres of diesel worth about Tk 3.5 crore has been stolen allegedly by officials of the Padma Oil Company, a senior official of the state-owned distributor of petroleum products told New Age.
'Three officials of the company were involved in
removing eight lakh litres of diesel from reserve tanks and selling it on the black market,' he said.
The stealing and embezzlement, a regular case but hardly traced, took place when the country is in dire need of fuel for irrigation during the ongoing boro season.
The Padma Oil authorities initially transferred the three officials for their alleged involvement in the corruption but were yet to take any punitive measure against them or any step to realise the money.
Admitting the allegation of such huge pilferage of diesel, Padma Oil managing director Mohammad Shamsuddoha, however, told New Age that the matter was under investigation.
'We will take necessary steps against the officials involved in the theft if they were found guilty in the investigation,' he said.
A Padma Oil official, however, in a written complaint to the energy ministry said that a three-member investigation committee, headed by Naresh Chandra, deputy general manager of the company, found evidences against three officials being involved in misappropriating about Tk 3.52 crore by selling eight lakh litres of diesel.
Quoting the recommendation of the investigation report, the official in his complaint said that the authorities should take necessary steps to realise the money from the alleged officials and take punitive measures against them.
In the complaint it was alleged that the officials together were involved in taking away eight lakh litres of diesel from the company's reserve tank and sell them in the black market between December 10, 2010 and February 20, 2011.
According to the written complaint, the three alleged officials are of the ranks of deputy general manager of operation, assistant general manager of maintenance and manager of operation respectively in Padma Oil.
Through an official order, the first alleged official was transferred to Dhaka office, and the two others were transferred to Chittagong head office and Guptakhal office respectively.
Such huge theft occurred when the country is passing through an acute crisis of fuel supply while the government is trying to meet the demand of diesel for irrigation during the current Boro season, supplying fuel at a subsidised rate, sources in the energy ministry said.
Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation is currently supplying diesel through its three petroleum marketing companies at Tk 44 for a litre while the actual cost of the fuel is Tk 60 to Tk 68 per litre.
Insiders in BPC, who wanted not to be quoted, told New Age that the corporation would need Tk 5,000 crore as subsidy to supply petroleum products at a subsidised rate.
There is allegation that the state-owned petroleum distribution corporation counts additional losses worth crores of Taka each year due to pilferage of diesel and other petroleum products.
Officials of the agriculture department said that diesel-run pumps cover 60 percent of Boro irrigation.
Nearly 45 lakh farmers in the country's northern districts are involved in Boro cultivation. Among them, 16 lakh are dependent on electricity-run pumps and 29 lakh on diesel-run pumps for irrigation.
They said that yearly demand of diesel in the country is around 38 lakh 20 thousand tonnes, most of which are being used during January-April period for Boro cultivation.
It has been alleged that farmers of the northern districts are not getting adequate supply of diesel for irrigation of Boro crops this year.
Source: New Age
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