Reforms pay off, govt recovery jumps to record Tk18,500cr from money suits in 2022

Efforts to accelerate the disposal of money recovery suits filed by government agencies have started paying off with a record high of some 13,000 cases involving a whopping Tk18,500 crore in outstanding payments settled in 2022.

According to the Solicitor Wing of the law ministry, the disposal rate of cases filed to recover money owed to various government agencies by individuals, or public and private institutions was much lower in the previous years. 

In 2021, total 4,326 such cases were disposed of by different courts, from which the government could recover Tk5,500 crore. The number of government money recovery suits settled in 2020 is 3,884.

Attorney General AM Amin Uddin told The Business Standard that various ministries of the government and their subordinate agencies, departments, and institutions have been making efforts to speed up trial proceedings of money recovery suits since 2019.

The Cabinet Division also issued directives from time to time in this regard. Besides, the Cabinet Division directed the authorities concerned to liaise with the Attorney General's Office and the government lawyers of the trial courts under the law ministry for speedy disposal of such cases.

Accordingly, the ministries and government functionaries concerned appointed competent lawyers to ensure fast disposal of the cases by gathering proper information.

The Cabinet Division worked with the law ministry at various times to make sure the courts dispose of these cases on a priority basis, the attorney general further said.

Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain told TBS that a monitoring team has been formed to speed up disposal of government cases. The team is working very actively, he noted, adding that they are now focusing on settling the old cases within the next five years.

Law Minister Anisul Huq also views the record recovery of dues by the government as a positive outcome of the efforts made by the Cabinet Division and the related parties to ensure quick disposal of government cases.

"This trend will continue," he told TBS.

Former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder said, "Government agencies and institutions under various ministries will benefit if the pending money recovery suits are also settled. The money stuck in these cases is basically people's money. If they [government agencies] can recover the dues, they will be able to expand the scope of the development activities conducted under them.

"Also, the recovered amount could be used in various development projects of the government which are currently stopped due to the prevailing [economic] crisis."

Data from the Solicitor Wing of the law ministry show that around 1.06 lakh government money recovery suits involving some Tk2,50,000 crore are currently pending with various courts across the country. Of these cases, 17,000 are pending for 10 years or more.

These cases have been filed in connection with the non-payment of dues by contractors to various government agencies. Besides, non-payment of dues to the government by rice mill owners, dues related to land leases with various individuals as well as government institutions, and outstanding payments concerning various government purchases are involved in these cases.

Court sources told TBS that out of the 13,000 government money recovery cases settled last year, 2300 were disposed of by the Appellate Division, which involved Tk5,500 crore claims. As there was no scope for appealing against Appellate Davison's judgments, the defendants had to pay the dues.

Meanwhile, the High Court passed verdicts on around 8,000 appeals last year, of which some 5,000 were challenged by the defendants. As no appeal petitions were filed challenging the remaining 3,000 verdicts, the defendants had to deposit some Tk4,700 crore involved in those cases to the government.

On the other hand, 29,000 money recovery suits were disposed of by trial courts last year but appeals have been filed against 21,300 of the verdicts. In the remaining 7,700 cases, which did not go to higher courts, the defendants returned Tk8,300 crore to the government.

Almost all, if not all, of the cases settled last year were pending for years, people involved in the trial of the cases told TBS, adding that as the cases were very old, the courts provided compensation waivers to the defendants and gave them the opportunity to return their dues in long-term instalments.  This is why many defendants refrained from appealing against the trial courts' verdicts, they added.

A few examples

In 1998, the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) cancelled the work order of a contractor named "Messers Bhai Bhai Corporation" over allegations of irregularities in the construction of a road in Naogaon district and awarded the work to another contractor.

At the time of the cancellation of the contract, Bhai Bhai Corporation owed Tk1.08 crore to the government. But as the company did not return the money as per rules, the LGED filed a case in February 1999 to recover the money.

In a judgement in 2002, the Naogaon trial court ordered the contractor to return the money within one month. The contractor filed an appeal with the High Court challenging the verdict, but the lower court judgement was upheld by the apex court in 2008. Finally, Bhai Bhai Corporation was compelled to pay the money it owed to the government along with an additional Tk15 lakh in compensation.  

In 2007, Shimon Rice Mill took Tk56 lakh from the food directorate to buy rice but only delivered 30 tonnes instead of the agreed 104 tonnes. The food directorate filed a case against the mill owner, Abul Hasan, who returned the money after the High Court's verdict in 2008. 

Abul Hasan told TBS, "The case arose due to a misunderstanding. After the matter was settled in the HC, I accepted the verdict and returned Tk40 lakh. I do not want to make any further comment on the matter."

In 2009, Milon Corporation was awarded a Tk76 crore contract for dredging a river but realised a bill of Tk41 crore without doing any work. The BIWTA filed a fraud case, and the owner of the company, Ikramul Haque Tutul, was sentenced to two years imprisonment and asked to return the money and pay compensation. The HC and Appellate Division upheld the judgement, and Tutul deposited all the money in August last year.

Money recovery from govt institutions

Apart from recovering a huge sum of outstanding payments from various individuals and private institutions, various government agencies were also able to recover dues from various other government institutions last year.

In 2007, the Railways Division filed a lawsuit against the Public Works Department in 2007 as the latter had leased seven acres of land from the former in 2002 for the construction of housing facilities for government officials in Sirajganj but did not pay the rent. That case made it up to the Appellate Division. Eventually, according to the judgement of the Appellate Division, in July last year, the Public Works Division paid Tk20 crore to the Railways Division.

In the same way, Railways recovered about Tk80 crore in outstanding payments from the Road Division.

Meanwhile, the Water Development Board received around Tk200 crore from the BIWTA.

In total, about Tk4,000 crore was recovered from various government institutions in 2022 as per court orders.