‪Agrani Bank’s job test cancelled over leaked questions

‪An examination for appointing senior officers to Agrani Bank has been cancelled over allegations of question leaks.

The bank authorities had decided to hold the test in two phases on Friday, considering the number of candidates.

‪The afternoon session was cancelled for "unavoidable reasons," said Abu Taleb, chairman of Dhaka University's Banking and Insurance Department, which was in charge of organising the exam.

‪A newspaper published a report on its website before the one-hour morning session began at 10am. The afternoon session scheduled for 3:30pm was called off after images of leaked questions appeared on the social media.

"We got some complaints about questions for the afternoon session being leaked. So we don't want to take a risk. We'll verify the allegations and schedule the test at a suitable time," said Taleb.

As for a decision over the morning session, he said: "We haven't heard anything about that question paper being leaked. But we'll still look into it."

The exam had 203,000 candidates, he said. Around 100,000 sat for the test in the morning.

Some said the questions and their answers were leaked to candidates using social media on Thursday night.

"I heard last night that the questions are out. In the morning I saw people memorising answers for a set of questions outside the exam centre. Those were the same questions we got during the exam," said candidate Rabi Islam.

Rakibul Islam, a Dhaka University student who sat for the test, said he saw the leaked question paper and answers with a candidate he did not know. The questions were for English and they matched with the ones he got in the test.

"This made me so angry. I wanted to hand in my sheet and leave. But the invigilator said no one is allowed to leave before an hour into the exam."
         
The leaked questions reached the test takers through various channels, said a candidate who graduated from Dhaka University. "Some had the exact copy. Others had all the answers written down."

The Agrani Bank has meanwhile clarified that it was not in any way related to the test-taking process. All job tests for state-owned banks are held through the central bank's Bankers Selection Committee, Agrani spokesperson AM Abid Hossain told bdnews24.com.

The responsibility for the Agrani Bank examination was given to Dhaka University's Department of Banking and Insurance through a bidding process, he said.

Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Subhankar Saha said the organisers were yet to inform the central bank on its decision about the morning session.