Biscuits were purchased at such prices in the office of the Chief Executive Officer with “Imprestmoney” or repayable advance allocations. 50 thousand taka per month allocated for this purpose in that office. From February to December last year (except April), the entire allocation has been withdrawn from the officer’s office every month. In all, the amount of money withdrawn is 6 lakhs. In March and May, the allocation has been doubled i.e. one lakh taka.
At that time, Salim Reza was in charge of the Chief Executive Officer of DNCC. Now he is retired. Selim Reza told Prothom Alo on the phone, ‘I don’t know how those who made the vouchers did it. It is difficult for me to comment without seeing the papers.’ He also commented that the money was very insufficient.
This money is allocated for 41 officers in Dhaka North City. The amount of this allocation in DNCC varies from Tk 20 thousand to Tk 150,000 depending on the office and officer. Apart from this, an imprest money of Tk 5000 per month has been allocated only for the tax officer of Zone-5.
According to DNCC sources, this money has been earmarked for the urgent purchase of equipment required for official work. However, the expenditure statements of the Mayor, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Social Welfare and Slum Development Department show that most of the imprest money was spent on food and entertainment. These range from rice-curry to biryani-polao with biscuits, coffee, milk, sugar, tea-bags, water, nuts, cakes, soft drinks, chips, parathas, eggs, vegetables and fruits.
