The decision, posted on the ministry’s website on Thursday evening, has caught many by surprise.
Health secretary MM Neazuddin told bdnews24.com that there might have been “information gap” in his office about their latest positions, “but they were made OSD in special circumstances”.
“Departmental proceedings will follow soon (against them),” he said.
He referred to two investigation reports – one by the government and other by the World Bank – that brought charges against those National Nutrition Services (NNS) officials.
The government launched NNS for “mainstreaming nutrition”, winding up National Nutrition Programme in July 2011.
It is one of the three major components of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with health and family planning being the other two.
An audit of the donor-funded projects found massive irregularities in its financial management in the 2011-2012 fiscal.
The health ministry last year carried out an investigation after the audit and found four guilty including the Line Director Prof Ekhlasur Rahman, who oversaw the programme.
He was later removed from the position.
As the leadership in the health ministry changed in the second term of the ruling Awami League, the ministry launched investigation, led by a deputy secretary, once again this year.
Contrary to the first investigation, this report labelled charges against almost all officials of the NNS, though it was alleged that they did not talk to everyone.
However, the World Bank that funds the NNS conducted a separate investigation on its own.
The health secretary said their decision followed these two reports.
Those who have been made Officers on Special Duty (OSD) are Dr Md Khalequzzaman, Dr Md Ameer Hossain, Dr Rubina Huq, Dr SM Mostafizur Rahman, Dr Sara Khanum, Dr Nasreen Khanum, Dr Meer Mobarak Hossain and Dr Tapan Kumar Biswas.
Among them, Dr Rubina Huq joined Sir Salimullah Medical College in January while Dr Mostafizur Rahman joined an international organisation taking lien in February.
Dr Md Khalequzzaman quit government job and joined Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in December last year.
Dr Sara Khanum also left the job in 2012 as she had been suffering from cancer. Dr Md Ameer Hossain has been working as an assistant professor at Gazipur Medical College since January.
In the OSD order, the ministry showed the posts they held in the NNS. They have been deputed to the Directorate General of Health Services.
The health secretary said they would initiate departmental proceedings against them.
“We’ll follow rules. We’ll conduct enquiry and then punish those who will be found guilty,” he said.
The ministry in its five-year plan, 2011-2016, set aside Tk 14.90 billion for the nutrition services.
But in the first year it released only Tk 650 million as activities of the NNS began in the last half of the fiscal due to delay in its creation.
The programme managers started joining from January and finally they could spend 60 to 70 percent of the funds they received in 2011-2012 fiscal.
But it created a knock-on effect.
The Annual Development Programme (ADP) that allocates development funds gave much lesser funds than expected in the following fiscals as they argued the NNS lacked spending capacity.
Officials say they received about Tk 2.2 billion in three years of the five-year plan.
Much of the money has been utilised in procurement. The ministry’s Central Medical Store Depot (CMSD) oversees those purchase.