The government is likely to take action against the officials of the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs for their involvement in freedom fighter’s certificate forgery, along with the accused persons who acquired the certificates by providing fraudulent information.
The ministry has already cancelled 210 fake certificates, and of them, 28 were cancelled yesterday, including the certificates of four top-level bureaucrats.
The process of cancelling 400 more certificates is under way.
“We are not only cancelling fake freedom fighter certificates. We are also planning to take tough action against the officials in the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs and the National Council of Freedom Fighters (Jamuka) who are involved,” said Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haq while talking to reporters yesterday.
The minister said taking action against the offenders may take a while as the ministry was currently waiting for the situation to calm down.
“We will proceed to take action against the ministry officials after we finish cancelling all the fake certificates,” he said.
The ministry cancelled the freedom fighter certificates of Health Secretary Neaz Uddin Mia, Public Service Commission Secretary AKM Amir Hossain, former Liberation War affairs secretary KH Masud Siddiqui, and former joint secretary of the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs Abul Kashem Talukder, by issuing a gazette notification yesterday.
Of them, Neaz is currently visiting New York to attend the UN General Assembly as a part of Bangladesh delegation led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Mozammel said: “The gazette has been sent to the Ministry of Public Administration today (yesterday). After receiving the copy, they will take departmental action against the secretaries.”
The ministry also withheld the certificate of Privatisation Commission Chairman Molla Waheduzzaman, who is also a former senior secretary to the prime minister’s office.
The minister said Wahed can appeal to reconsider the decision taken by Jamuka and the ministry on September 14.
Meanwhile, Abdul Naser Chowdhury, senior secretary at the Ministry of Public Administration, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday evening that his ministry had yet to receive the gazette notification from the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs on the issue of cancelling freedom fighter certificates.
He said his ministry would take necessary steps once it received the gazette.
The Ministry of Liberation War Affairs ministry cancelled the certificates of the four bureaucrats following the recommendations of the Anti-Corruption Commission, as the anti-graft body found their certificates to be fake in their investigation.
The ACC also requested the Ministry of Public Administration to take departmental action against the officials.