Photo: Messenger
Bribes amounting to around Tk 5 crore change hands per month at the Dhaka divisional passport office, according to intelligence information and The Daily Messenger’s own investigation. This money is distributed among the office director, officials, workers, and brokers.
Brokers receive bribes from applicants applying for new passports and information correction. No passport-related work is done at the office without brokers. Over the years, 23 listed brokers have been exerting their influence at the office. Law enforcement forces sometimes arrest the brokers, but irregularities prevail.
Abdullah Al Mamun, director of the Dhaka divisional passport office, could not be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts. Major General Md Nurul Anwar, director general of the Department of Immigration and Passports, declined to comment on the matter.
Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh Iftekharuzzaman said corruption in the passport office is nothing new. “Passport is one of the few services where corruption occurs. Without the help of officials and workers at the department, there is no way brokers conduct their activities there.”
He said not only the Dhaka divisional passport office, but the situation is the same across Bangladesh. “There is a lack of goodwill from the department officials and also the government to curb corruption there. At present, the process of issuing passports has been intentionally left with some loopholes that provide opportunities for corruption.”
According to The Daily Messenger investigation, 2,000-3,000 people go to the Dhaka divisional passport office every day. More than 500 applications are submitted for new passports and passport correction, taking the monthly figure to a little more than 15,000. Brokers lure 90 per cent of the applicants in various ways and convince them to take their assistance. They charge Tk 3,000-4,000 for each passport. In total, applicants pay bribes of around Tk 5.4 crore every month.
A group of 23 brokers control the passport office. The head of the syndicate is Jiban Sikder. Other members include Mamun Sikder (brother of Jiban), Sohag (brother of Jiban), Nurzzaman, Rafiq, Zakir Hossain Shahidul, Jewel Rana, Zulmat Khan, Tanjeena Akhtar, Elahi, Rezaul Islam, Abdul Mollah, Raju, Naima, Qubad Sikder, Sohel, Shaheen Sikder, Rashida, Shipan Khan, Md Mohsin, Md Nur Alam Khokon, Md Khorshed, and Md Chan Mia.
Assistant Director of the office Halima Khatun, Assistant Director’s Secretary Kumar Ain and Computer Operator working in the CRI unit Md Ashiq work as assistants to the brokers. Bribes are also transacted through Ansar members employed at the office. ASI Md Yunus Kabir of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station is also involved in the syndicate. He has ties with Abdullah Al Mamun, the main director of the office, and gives him his daily share of the bribes.
Every day, 70-90 brokers gather in front of the passport office and lure applicants into spending extra money to get hassle-free services by highlighting the irregularities and harassment of the process. This is known as the chain system, where applicants pay additional money apart from the government-mandated passport fee, which is Tk 8,050 for urgent passport and Tk 10,350 for very urgent passport. The brokers tell applicants that by paying Tk 14,000-15,000 per application, they can get a hassle-free service. They say in collusion with passport officials, they will take care of all the steps, starting from submitting the application to police verification and to finally receiving the passport.
To avoid harassment, applicants agree to participate in the chain system and pay the extra money. When an applicant goes to the office at 9am, he has to stand in the queue for document assessment and being photographed. Often, he has to stay there till afternoon to complete the whole process. He can avoid standing in the queue for such a long time by paying brokers extra money. Brokers can easily handle the process as they work in connivance with unscrupulous passport officials.
Besides, expats who apply for passports from abroad have to wait for long to get it. Even after the police verification report arrives at the passport office, the authorities deliberately make delays in updating the information. If contacted, they sometimes print the passport and send it abroad fast.
Applicants who pay brokers say they are helpless otherwise. “If you go to the office and want to submit the application without a broker, you will be harassed a lot. But if you hire a broker, all problems are solved. We have come to accept that we have to pay brokers to get passports,” an applicant said.
“Brokers do not pocket the money alone. Passport officials have their share of it. For this reason, they themselves make sure that brokers exist,” he added.
Messenger/Disha
