New bosses have been named to head the Ministry of Health and Family Planning and the Public Service Commission following the resignation of two secretaries in the wake of the fake freedom fighter certificate scandal.
The ensuing civil administration reshuffle saw five high officials transferred or given new postings. The Public Administration Ministry issued two orders yesterday in this regard.
Shipping Secretary Syed Monjurul Islam was appointed health secretary and Additional Secretary to the Public Administration Ministry Shahjahan Ali Mollah was appointed acting secretary of the Public Service Commission.
Additional secretary to the Roads and Highways Division Fariduddin Chowhdury was made acting Jute and Textiles secretary.
Bangladesh Civil Service Academy Rector (secretary) Shafiq Alam Mehdi replaced Monjurul as shipping secretary.
Additional secretary to the Ministry of Education, Sohrab Hossain, was made the new rector (acting secretary) of the civil service academy.
On Thursday, former health secretary M Neazuddin Miah and ex-PSC secretary AKM Amir Hossain, who had gotten their jobs extended with fake freedom fighter certificates, went into voluntary retirement.
They are among four senior bureaucrats whose freedom fighter certificates, now known to have been obtained fraudulently, were cancelled on September 22.
Two other public officials who lost their freedom fighter certificates are former secretary of the Liberation War Affairs Ministry, KH Masud Siddiqui, and joint secretary of the ministry, Abul Kashem Talukdar, currently officers on special duty.
The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) found the four officials and a former senior secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and existing chairman of the Privatisation Commission, Molla Waheduzzaman, guilty of fraudulently obtaining freedom fighter certificates.
On September 22, the ministry cancelled the freedom fighter certificates of the four government high officials in a gazetted notification. It also withheld the certificate of Privatisation Commission Chairman Molla Waheduzzaman.
The officials were served show cause notices on October 13 and asked to reply within 10 working days of receiving the notices.
October 25 was fixed as the last date of submission because the accused officials received their notices on October 15.
On October 27, three of the four senior officials of the civil administration had replied to the show cause notices issued by the Public Administration Ministry regarding the acquisition of freedom fighter certificates from the Liberation War Affairs Ministry using false information.