UGC official suspended for bribery
The University Grants Commission yesterday suspended its Additional Director Ferdous Zaman on charge of taking bribe from a private university.
The decision came following an allegation that Ferdous took Tk 5 lakh in bribe from Britannia University in Comilla, said the UGC in a press release.
The university filed the allegation against Ferdous after the UGC requested all the universities to inform the commission about irregularities in those, the statement added.
Ferdous took the money promising help in getting permission from the UGC to introduce a new subject, sources said.
The commission has also formed a three-member body headed by Prof Atful Hye Shibly to investigate the allegation and asked the committee to submit a report within 10 workdays.
The suspension comes about three weeks after the Transparency International Bangladesh 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.
The TIB conducted a research on 22 private universities in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet between June 2012 and May this year for the report.
On a number of occasions, the education ministry and the UGC trashed the TIB report as “baseless” and asked the graft watchdog to produce proof to substantiate its survey report.
Earlier in 2003, Ferdous was suspended on charges of corruption but he managed to return to his work with the help of some UGC officials, sources said.
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