A REPORT in a local daily stated that five top government officials resorted to forgery to obtain freedom fighters’ certificate. Three of them are secretaries, one is a joint secretary and the other is chairman of the privatisation commission. The Anti-Corruption Commission has found that they took the certificates illegally to extend their service period last year. ACC Deputy Director Zulfikar Ali, who investigated the five, submitted the probe report to the commission on Tuesday.
The report recommended that the authorities revoke their certificates and take legal and departmental action against them, sources said. The five are Health Secretary Niaz Uddin Mia, Public Service Commission Secretary AKM Amir Hossain, former Liberation War Affairs Secretary KH Masud Siddiqui (now an OSD), former Joint Secretary of Liberation War Affairs Ministry Abul Kashem Talukder (currently an OSD) and Privatisation Commission Chairman Molla Waheeduzzaman.
ACC Commissioner Shahabuddin said that they took the certificates through improper procedures. A top ACC official said they submitted fake documents to obtain the certificates. They also did not appear before the Jatiya Muktijoddha Council for the mandatory verification of their participation in the war. On August 10, the public administration ministry decided to take action under criminal law against those who obtained freedom fighters’ certificates by faking documents to extend their service tenure.
It also decided to cancel the additional benefits of those who did not declare themselves as freedom fighters when they joined the service. None of these five in question declared themselves as freedom fighters when they entered government service, according to the ACC sources. The government has revoked freedom fighters’ certificates of 182 government officials so far this year, as they obtained those through cheating or forgery. The ministry is now investigating 300 more government employees and about 5,000 people from different professions who allegedly obtained the certificates by faking documents in the last few years.
It is interesting to note that among the five one – KH Masud Siddiqui (now an OSD) has also been accused of supplying substandard crests to our friends who helped us in our War of Independence. Thus, he stands doubly guilty – of both faking his own credentials and then profiting from it – through his position in the government.
While any country should honour its freedom fighters, people who fraudulently advertise themselves as such should get the highest punishment – both for denigrating the sanctity of our War for Independence and also that of the position of genuine freedom fighters everywhere. While there were only 1.98 lakh such fighters in 2002 the figure-jumped upto 2.11 lakh in 2012. It does not take much analysis to understand that the additional people only secured certificates to help themselves. The government should take stringent steps to figure out who is genuinely a freedom fighter to ensure that such dishonest people do not take advantage of the public offices that they hold. Thus stringent vetting techniques should exist – but this is not the case.
