The government formed a three-member high level committee for carrying more investigations into the alleged fraudulence in making crests already awarded to foreign friends and organisations for their invaluable contribution to the country’s war for independence in 1971 against Pakistan.
Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamun will lead the team. The other members of the committee are Agriculture Ministry’s Joint Secretary Mosharraf Hossain and the Environment and Forest Ministry’s Joint-Secretary Foyez Ahmed.
The Public Administration Ministry issued an order in this connection on Sunday and it also asked the committee to submit the report in a short time.
The crests scam triggered uproar after the mass media reported on the matter, forcing the government to form an investigation committee that found the media reports to be true.
In its report, the committee mentioned that around Tk 7.04 crore was swindled through forgery.
Dhaka Divisional Commissioner Zillar Rahman, who led the committee formed in April, submitted the report to the Minister for Liberation War Affairs, AKM Mozammel Haque.
Committee sources said that the people found former Liberation War Affairs Minister AB Tajul Islam, Secretary of the Ministry Mizanur Rahman and former Secretary KH Masud Siddique, Additional Secretary Golam Mustafa, Joint-Secretary Md Abul Quasem, Deputy Secretary Enamul Quader Khan and Senior Assistant Secretary Md Babul Mia guilty.
The committee found auditor of the ministry Anisur Rahman, superintendent Aminur Rashid, audit and accounts officer Jasmin Akhtar, Chief Accounting Officer Jahanara Parvin, Assistant Accounts Officer Md Kamruzzaman and Steno-typist Abul also Quasem guilty of the adulteration.
Two suppliers – Amicom and Messrs Mohsinul Hasan – were also found guilty, the sources said.
Amicom supplied 258 crests and Mohsinul Hasan supplied 60.
The adulteration in the gold could be detected when the liberation war affairs ministry sent a sample of the crest on October 18, 2012 to the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution for testing, two days before 61 ‘friends of Bangladesh’ were given the crests.
Between 2011 and 2013, the government honoured 338 foreign individuals and organisations with awards in three categories – 1 with the Bangladesh Freedom Honour, 13 with the Bangladesh Liberation War Honour and 324 with the Friends of Liberation War Honour in seven phases.
Each of the crests was supposed to have one bhori (11.66 grams) of gold and 30 bhoris of silver. But the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution found about three ‘anas’ of gold and three bhoris of brass-copper-zinc alloy in each.
