Tk 14 crore graft charge against DPHE former chief engineer

Dhaka, Oct 30 (BDNEWS) – The Parliamentary standing committee on LGRD ministry affairs advised the ministry to fire Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) former acting chief engineer Fariduddin Ahmed on eight specific charges.

Members of the both ruling and opposition parties including ministers took the decision unanimously in principle at a meeting of the parliamentary body at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban on Sunday.

The JS watchdog body brought eight specific allegations against him including misappropriation of money and misuse of power.

The meeting formed a four-member sub-committee headed by Shahiduzzaman Beltu to investigate into the corruption of Fariduddin. The other members of the committee are Begum Rawshan Ershad, Sarwar Jamal Nizam and Abul Khaer Bhuiyan.

The sub-committee will submit its report after 15 days in the next meeting of the parliamentary body. In the meeting the accused will have the opportunity to defend himself.

The meeting sources said Fariduddin in 2004 when he was in charge of chief engineer embezzled Tk 13 crore and 25 lakh resorting to forgery, corruption and deception through the owner of Mrs Meghna Traders Shahjahan.

During his tenure he had allocated Tk 19 lakh 10 thousand for Netrokona, Kishoreganj, Brahmanbaria, Bogra and Patuakhali for the guesthouses of the directorate though there were no existence of any guesthouse. He misappropriated the money through fake allocation.

The meeting was told when Fariduddin was superintending engineer of Khulna Circle he embezzled Tk 37 to 48 thousand from tube well sector, Tk 44,297 while in Barisal and Tk 32 lakh while in Chandpur.

Besides, while going on different tours he has never handed over his office responsibility to appropriate persons rather he handed it over to his subordinates due to his tendency to misuse the power and dictatorial behaviour.

The meeting unanimously decided to file a case for misappropriating about Tk 14 crore against him.

LGRD and cooperatives minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, state minister Ziaul Haque Zia, Suranjit Sen Gupta of AL, Syeed Iskandar and Shahiduzzaman Beltu of BNP attended the meeting with the committee president Abdul Mannan Talukdar in the chair.

BDNEWS/1815 hrs