DHAKA (AFP) — About 80 percent of 2,800 staff at Bangladesh's biggest state-owned gas distributor took bribes to the tune of millions of dollars, the head of a government anti-graft body said Tuesday.
Employees of Titas Gas Distribution Company pocketed bribes in return for undercharging thousands of factories and homes for years, said the chief probing the company, which supplies about 80 percent of Bangladesh's gas.
Colonel Hasan, who uses one name, said so far 127 workers at Titas Gas had agreed to return four billion taka (58 million dollars') worth of assets bought with the money they took.
"But it is a tiny fraction of the money these people have made by under-billing the amount of gas a company or an individual household has consumed," he said.
"It's the tip of the iceberg. We have found that almost 80 percent of the company's 2,800 employees are corrupt. They bought flats, factories, land and shops with the stolen money."
The country's military-backed government launched an investigation into the company last year as part of a nationwide anti-graft drive it began in February 2007.
The government, which came to power in January 2007 following months of political instability, has detained more than 150 politicians, including former ministers accused of accepting bribes for official duties.
In October it widened the drive to state-owned companies.
"Titas was a huge money-making machine for its thousands of employees. The tally we made was based on the declared assets by the employees, including some of the top executives," Hasan said.
Bangladesh is considered one of the most corrupt nations in the world by Berlin-based Transparency International, which ranks graft worldwide every year.
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