Not only MD, other corrupts in Biman should also be punished

THE Board of the National Flag Carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines has sacked its Managing Director and CEO on Wednesday a month before the extension of his contract was to end. The Board took the decision after getting proofs of irregularities in the appointment of Pilots along with a barrage of allegations of lack of transparency. Bangladesh Biman has become a losing enterprise for many years while a section of flight crew have allegedly indulged in gold smuggling.
The Board, which fired the CEO on the ground of irregularities, is also embraced by misappropriation by the MD as the Anti-Corruption Commission revealed. The ACC said in case of purchase and lease of aircraft, some intermediary firms work as a liaison between the service providers and the Biman high-ups as well as its Board members. Spending huge money, these companies make officials fix the specification of [aircraft] procurement in a way so that only the preferred companies got the work. They show the estimated price several times the actual price. As a result, low-quality equipment is bought at two to three times the rate.
Bangladesh Biman lost several thousand crores of taka as a result of the influence of these intermediary companies. In case of maintenance and overhaul, officials and Board members award the work to their preferred organisations and loot hundreds of crores of taka. Ground service is one of the most corrupt sectors at Biman where every day several million takas are collected from different airlines for ground service. In reality, Biman does not provide any ground service to the airliners. As a result, many foreign airlines have become reluctant to operate in Bangladesh, while many stopped their operation altogether in Dhaka.
Biman has incurred a loss for most of the years since its inception in 1972. In 2007, the army-backed caretaker government turned Biman into a public limited company in efforts to make it a profitable venture. The discontinuation of Biman CEO is an alarm for corrupts high-ups if the real cause is that. The citizens’ wish to see the national carrier as standard as other international airlines. The vicious circle of corruption inside the Biman should be busted out.