All’s not well with Ageing Well

A charity run by the wife of Bangladesh High Commissioner Mohamed Mijarul Quayes with the High Commission as its address is under the scanner over how funds raised in London were spent.

It is unclear how much funds the Ageing Well UK (http://www.ageingwelluk. org) said to be a clone of Age Well Bangladesh started by Naeema Chaudhury Quayes, has raised and what the money has been spent on.

Quayes, a former foreign secretary, has been transferred to Brazil after a furore over his role during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s recent UK visit, with diplomats complaining over his ‘holidaying’ in Italy as they toiled to prepare for the PM’s visit.

Quayes left for Italy to join his wife Naeema immediately after the prime minister left London.

Ageing Well on its website describes the High Commissioner’s wife as “Madam Naeema Chaudhury Quayes, First Lady of Bangladesh High Commissioner in UK”, then as “Chair of the Ageing Well UK”, and finally as “President, Age Well Bangladesh”.

Ageing Well UK is a limited company, with Naeema Chaudhury Quayes as chair. She is one of its five directors.

Several London businessmen told bdnews24.com that they donated money to this “charity” on request from the High Commissioner.

The postal address for this company is the official residence of the Bangladesh High Commissioner located at 7 Spaniards Close, London NW11 6TH.

Spaniards Close is a road having 12 properties with an average current value of £8.6 million.

According to its website, Ageing Well UK is a branch of Age Well Bangladesh, which is registered as a joint stock company.

However, Age Well Bangladesh’s executives deny any official link with this London-based company.

Its General Secretary ASM Atiqur Rahman, a professor of social welfare at Dhaka University, told bdnews24.com there was no official link with the Ageing Well UK.

“Our founder is the wife of former Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes. When they transferred to London she opened it there. We have no official link,” he said.

Asked whether they received any funds from London he said: “Not so far.”

“They may have collected funds in London, but we have no clue about it,” he said.

Its Joint Secretary Kaniz Fatema Aziz who identified herself as ‘a social worker’ firmly denied any official link with the Ageing Well UK.

“We haven’t got any funds yet. I don’t have any knowledge on their activities in London,” she said. “Apa (Naeema Quayes) is doing everything.”

Another office-bearer of the organisation in Dhaka, speaking on condition of anonymity, told bdnews24.com: “I heard Apa (Naeema) managed some funds, but we didn’t receive any amount so far.”

The office-bearer says Age Well Bangladesh is a social welfare organisation, but has been registered as a joint stock company to be able to operate a business model for its sustainability.

Their objective is to reach the elderly, who need help and care and who have physical or mental disability.

The executives say their founder, Naeema Quayes, would come to Dhaka in December.

The documents bdnews24.com has obtained show apart from Naeema, two other directors – Fahmida Begum and Nafiza Anwar – used the address of the official residence of Bangladesh High Commissioner during the registration.

Anwar is a British citizen while the nationality of Fahmida Begum is not mentioned in the document.

“We don’t have any ‘official information’ on this,” was the clear answer of Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque when asked about the organisation and its link with the foreign ministry.

He declined further comment on the ground that Ageing Well UK ‘has nothing to do with Bangladesh foreign ministry’.

But a former ambassador said it was improper for a High Commissioner's wife to raise funds in this way and use the official address of the High Commissioner for her company.

“Ethically she cannot use the address of Bangladesh House for raising funds or running a company,” the former ambassador said.

“Ethically speaking, she cannot raise funds. Sometimes, wives of other ambassadors have raised funds during special occasions but they sent back all the money raised to Bangladesh in a transparent way,” the former ambassador said.

Naeema Chaudhury Quayes has not responded to bdnews24.com’s request for comment.

bdnews24.com asked her about the future of Ageing Well UK, now that she is leaving London with her husband (who is transferred to Brazil) and sought a statement of accounts – how much money they raised and how it was spent.

First, an email sent to [e-mail] and addressed to its treasurer Janet Elizabeth Bros met with no response.

Three days later this correspondent telephoned Naeema Quayes. She said she could not check her email as she was outside London.

She advised to send all queries to [e-mail] for eliciting a reply.

A day later she replied: “Your email queries have been forwarded to the management committee which will respond in keeping with the organisation's procedures”.

The former foreign secretary Mijarul Quayes was appointed as High Commissioner to the UK on Dec 9, 2012.

The government

transferred

him to a less important position as envoy to Brazil after just one and a half years.

During his stay in London, Quayes has faced a barrage of charges for “abuse of power” and “failure to deliver”.

He is currently facing several audit objections for ‘misuse of powers and irregularities’ from the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

The bdnews24.com published

excerpts

from the CAG’s report exclusively.

The CAG’s Office charged his mission with ‘irregularities, mismanagement and lack of transparency’ in spending public money.

Its 2012-13 report says the High Commission did not have a convincing answer to 47 of the 57 audit objections raised by the auditors.

It asked for refund of money spent without ‘due authorisation’.

Quayes has also been criticised for not doing enough for the government during and after the Jan 5 elections.

Sheikh Hasina’s administration faced a wave of criticism from the UK and other Western countries over the polls.

Sources in the UK earlier told bdnews24.com that he “failed to perform” in his role as High Commissioner in an important diplomatic mission such as London.

“The government had to rely on non-mission contacts in London to secure major appointments for the prime minister,” one source had claimed, during a late July trip to the UK.

He was

“holidaying”

in Italy and rushed back the night before Hasina landed in London to take part in the much-trumpeted Girl Summit last month.

But his wife stayed back in Italy. He took a flight from Heathrow to join Naeema again barely an hour after prime minister boarded the plane bound for Dhaka.