Responding to Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid’s statement against its study report in the parliament on Thursday , the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on Friday defended its position saying that it conducted the study maintaining the international standard.
The study was conducted neither to undermine the Ministry nor UGC, but intended to help the authorities concerned establish good governance in the private university sector,” Executive Director of TIB Dr. Iftekharuzzaman told The New Nation on Friday.
Asked to comment on Education Minister’s statement for apology or prove of the allegations against the
Education Ministry and University Grants Commission (UGC), Dr. Iftekharuzzaman said, ” TIB report is the outcome of a research study and not a criminal investigation. We are ready to give any information in support of our findings. We urge the ministry to devote its efforts to curb corruption and irregularities rather than blaming the messenger.”
TIB, he said has sent its report to the Ministry and also UGC. TIB, he said, hopes that the government would take steps to bring those involved in corruption to task rather than setting example of shooting the messenger.
The denial syndrome of the government, he said, would only encourage those involved in corruption.
The Education Minister on Thursday termed baseless TIB recent report on corruption in private universities, which was rejected by authorities of the universities, and asked the transparency watchdog to offer apology to the nation.
He told the parliament that TIB must offer apology to the nation if it failed to submit proofs to prove the allegations of irregularities and corruption in private universities it made in the report on ‘Private universities – challenge of good governance and ways forward’ published on Monday.
Nurul Islam Nahid also called upon TIB to withdraw its ‘ill-motivated’ report. ‘At intervals, TIB publishes report only to embarrass the government,” he said.
He said, ‘TIB has no evidence of corruption…It claimed that it carried the investigation for the last two years but never talked to officials of the Ministry. This report is baseless.’
Iftekharuzzaman said that the report was a qualitative research and followed international standards.
He said that they have already sent copies of the report to the University Grants Commission and the Education Ministry. ‘We are ready to give more information if they want,’ he said.
The report found that approval of a private university involved illegal transactions ranging between Tk 1 crore and Tk 3 crore, such transaction of Tk 50,000-Tk 3 lakh for a fake certificate, Tk 50,000-Tk 1 lakh for audit report, Tk 50,000-Tk 2 lakh for appointment of Vice-Chancellor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Treasurer and Tk 50,000-Tk 1 lakh for inspection for approval of the university.
There were illegal transactions of Tk 10,000-Tk 30,000 for faculty approval, Tk 10,000-Tk 20,000 for department approval and Tk 5,000-Tk 10,000 for syllabus approval, the report added.
The study was conducted on 22 private universities between 2012 and 2014. There are 79 private universities in the country.
The study also found that a section of officials at the education ministry, the University Grants Commission and private universities were involved in corruption at different stages in the private universities.
Private universities denied their involvement in illegal money transactions at any stage.
