Shawdesh Desk:

A director of the University Grants Commission (UGC) who had been suspended on charges of taking Tk 5 lakh as bribe from a university and censured three times for dishonest activities is now in the race for appointment as secretary of the commission.

The controversial UGC Director (Planning and Development) is Ferdous Zaman who had been suspended twice — first time in 2003 and second time in 2014 — on charges of taking bribe and dishonest activities.

The UGC sources said the commission recently published advertisement for appointment of secretary of the commission and the UGC’s controversial official Ferdous Zaman, also secretary (current-charge) of UGC, is one of the candidates for the post.

The selection board meeting to appoint the new secretary of the UGC would be held on Sunday but the appointment of Ferdous Zaman is almost finalised due to his influence and lobbying.

Containing lots of allegations against Ferdous Zaman, a written complaint was submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on February 15 against him urging the government not to appoint the ‘corrupt’ official to such an important post and conduct a fresh probe.

According to the allegations, Ferdous Zaman was appointed on adhocbasis as assistant secretary (grade 6) of the UGC on June 25, 2000 violating rules.

Although he introduced himself as a freedom fighter’s son during appointment, later he did not introduce himself as freedom fighter’s son during his appointment as deputy director and additional director of the commission.

It was alleged that in 2002, Ferdous Zaman received money from Pundra University of Science and Technology in the name of fuel cost of car and tool fees and embezzled the money.

A departmental case was filed against him over the incident.

A probe body found the allegation as true and transferred him from the post of personal secretary (PS) of then UGC chairman to other department of the commission.

The probe body also recommended that the commission should not include him in inspection team in future while the body also censured him as per Government Servant (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1985.

In 2003, Ferdous Zamanillegally supplied important documents, including the copy of project proposal of Sylhet Leading University, from administration division of UGC to the university, violating rules.

After probe, the commission filed a departmental case against him and in April 2003, the UGC issued a show cause notice suspending Ferdous Zaman. As he failed to give any satisfactory reply to the notice, the commission halted his two increments following probe body recommendation. And the commission again censured him strongly.

Afterwards, on July 21, 2014, the UGC again suspended the then Additional Director Ferdous Zaman

on charge of taking Tk 5 lakh as bribe from Britannia University in Comilla.He took the money promising help in getting permission from the UGC to introduce a new subject.

The suspension comes after the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) published a report in which it claimed a section of officials of the education ministry, UGC and private universities were involved in corruption at different stages.

At that time, a high level probe body was also formed to investigate the incident. Later, the committee submitted investigation reports to the UGC but the commission did not take any action against him as he was able to manage the high officials of the commission. Even, the probe body report was not submitted to the administration division of the commission.

The allegation submitted to the ACC also stated that in 2018, a four-member probe body of UGC censured Ferdous Zamanthe third time for giving approval of proposed Department of Biostatistics of Dhaka University and its manpower proposal without approval of the commission.

The probe body also recommended that the commission should not post Ferdous Zaman to the public and private university-interested divisions of the UGC.

Another allegation was also found against Ferdous Zaman that he took Tk 12,000 from the outer campus of Leading University in Malibagh in the name of honorarium as coordinator. Later, the amount of money stood at Tk 20,000 for each month which still continues.

There is also allegation that Ferdous Zamantook Tk 76,490 as annual budget honorarium from Khulna Agriculture University illegally for two times though there is no scope to receive such money as per rules.

There is also allegation against him that an allegation of immoral activities was submitted to the UGC against a teacher of Dawah and Islamic studies department of Islami University.

As a member of the probe committee of the allegation, Ferdous Zaman gave report in favour of the IU teacher through his influence. Later, he along with his family enjoyed a pleasure trip to Malaysia as benefits of it.

The UGC official also appointed his relatives through nepotism at several universities as he used his influence in the recruitment process.