Staff Reporter :
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has launched an inquiry into an alleged complaint how did the nine ACC officials, including its Director General (DG) Kamrul Hasan Mollah, managed freedom fighter certificates?
The top officers of the Commission in a routine meeting in the Commission head quarters took the decision and formed a two-member probe team comprising its Deputy Director Zulfikar Ali and Assistant Director Rafiqul Islam.
ACC Chairman M Badiuzzaman, its two Commissioners Shahabuddin Chuppu and Dr Nasiruddin Ahmed were present, among others, in the meeting.
On Tuesday, the allegation was placed in its monthly meeting.
Other alleged accused are ACC Directors Golam Yahiya and Abdul Aziz Bhuiyan, Deputy Directors Dhali Abdus Samad and SM Golam Mowla Siddique, former Deputy Director Ranjan Kumar Majumder, Assistant Inspector Abdus Sobhan, Court Assistants Nurul Islam and Ishaque Fakir.
They managing the freedom fighter certificates through forgery extended their service tenure and enjoyed different benefits, as shown in the complaint.
The Commission primarily found evidence that DG Kamrul Hasan Mollah and Director Yahiya illegally managed the FF certificates.
The service tenure of Yahiya ended one year ago. Then he produced FF certificate to extend his service.
Earlier, the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs issued a circular asking all the ministries, directorates, departments and other government bodies to identify the fake freedom fighters who are in government service and sent their list to the Public Administration Ministry.
ACC Commissioner Shahabuddin Chuppu said, the Commission received a letter from the Ministry of Liberation War one month ago and took the issue seriously.
“On ethical point of view, the ACC, as an anti-graft body, has the responsibility to review the FF certificates of its own officials as to how did they manage the certificates? We placed the issue in the monthly meeting of the Commission and decided to launch a probe in this regard”, he said.
The Commission suspects that the ACC officials might have managed the fake certificates by way of bypassing the due process”, the Commissioner said. “The probe will be carried out in due process”. “Nobody will be shown leniency by the probe team regarding his post and rank”.
He said that the Commission officers who are going to face the probe did not mention themselves as the freedom fighters when they joined their jobs.
On the other hand, the ACC is now collecting information about five secretaries, one additional secretary and two joint secretaries after finding allegation that they managed the FF certificates through forgery.
Earlier, the Commission probed certificate forgery by three secretaries, one ex-secretary and one joint secretary and found irregularities and violation of Muktijoddha Council Act-2002.
Upon receiving the probe report from the ACC on September 8, the Liberation War Affairs Ministry revoked the certificates of Health Secretary Niaz Uddin Mia, Public Service Commission Secretary AKM Amir Hossain, ex-Liberation War Affairs Secretary K H Masud Siddiqui (now OSD), and ex-Joint Secretary to the Ministry Abul Kashem Talukder (now OSD).
The certificate of Mollah Waheeduzzaman, former Secretary of Prime Minister’s Office and now Chairman of Privatisation Commission, has also been suspended.
The government has revoked freedom fighter certificates of 182 government officials this year.
Some public servants obtained fake certificates after the government increased the retirement age of freedom fighters from 57 years to 60 in two phases.
Around 11,000 freedom fighters are now in government service.
