Staff Reporter :
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has imposed a travel ban on six officials of the health department and the chairman of JMI Hospital Requisite Manufacturing Ltd (JHRML) Md Abdur Razzaq in a case of supplying and receiving fake N95 masks.
Confirming the matter to the media on Monday, ACC Secretary Md Dilwar Bakth said a letter has been sent to immigration police in this regard instructing them to remain alert, so that the six people cannot leave the country.
The commission has interrogated the chairman of JMI for the second day of a five-day remand on the same charges.
ACC Deputy Director Md Nurul Huda interrogated him at the ACC headquarters on Monday.
The six Central Medical Stores Depot (CMSD) officials accused are Deputy Director Dr Zakir Hossain (now superintendent of Cox’s Bazar General Hospital), Assistant Director (Storage and Distribution) Shahjahan Sarkar, Chief Coordinator and Desk Officer Mohammad Ziaul Haque (now attached to DGHS), desk officer with additional responsibilities of the store Sabbir Ahmed (now medical officer of Dewanganj Upazila Health and medical in Jamalpur), Store Officer (acting) Kabir Ahmed (now on post-retirement leave), and Senior Storekeeper Mohammad Yusuf Fakir.
Earlier on September 29, the commission arrested the JMI chairman, filing a case against him and six officials of the CMSD under the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on charges of supplying and receiving fake N95 masks.
Razzaq was placed on a five-day remand by a Dhaka court on the same day. No lawyer was present in the court to defend Razzaq.
According to the case statement, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare were in agreement with JMI to provide N95 masks.
JMI was supposed to supply 50,000 N95 face masks, but it supplied only 20,610 ordinary masks packed as N95 in two batches.
While receiving the second batch of supplies, the CMSD store officials reported to their director that they doubted the quality of the masks.
The CMSD director then served a show-cause notice to JMI and the supplier took the masks back.
However, the Health Ministry launched an investigation to probe the allegation that substandard masks had been supplied to several state-run hospitals.
In July, a probe body formed by the ministry reported that it had been a planned scam.
The committee also found CMSD to be “irresponsible” and recommended that its officials be held accountable for the scandal.
