Bangladesh: Dozens of health staff under ACC scanner
Dozens more of health department employees have come under the surveillance of the Anti-Corruption Commission for their alleged accumulation of illegal wealth through irregularities, including in procurement.
Health rights campaigners say that little action against the corrupt people in the sector put it in a precarious state though some procurement and other irregularities regarding COVID-19 have been unmasked recently.
At least 20 more employees would be asked to submit their wealth statements gradually as the commission’s detectives have found primary evidence of inconsistencies between their properties and known sources of income, an ACC director general told New Age on Tuesday.
He said that the commission had earlier served notices to a dozen health department, hospital and medical college employees and the wives of eight of them to submit their wealth statements to the commission for the same reason.
He said that most of the 20 employees were from the Directorate General of Health Services and some were form hospitals and medical colleges.
‘Some more names from the health department would be published in future for their involvement in various irregularities,’ ACC secretary Md Dilwar Bakth told reporters at his office.
He said that the commission was working on enhancing the capacity of its intelligence unit.
The commission DG said that some government employees opened private companies in the name of their family members and the companies were getting supply orders.
Because of such allegations, their wives and family members will also be asked to submit their wealth statements, the official said.
He said that over 100 current and former health department employees and suppliers, including these people, were facing ACC inquiries.
Rashid-e-Mahbub, a former president of Bangladesh Medical Association and the chairman of Bangladesh Health Rights Movement, told New Age that stopping corruption in the health sector was not possible over night as it was deeply entrenched in the sector.
‘Some corruption and irregularities are taking place everywhere, but corruption in the health sector has crossed all limits,’ he said, adding that the authorities should reform the sector to rein in its corruption.
Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad president Professor Iqbal Arsalan blamed the health ministry and the Director General of Health Services for the rampant corruption in the sector.
He said that employees of the health department indulged in corruption due to lack of surveillance by the authorities concerned.
Health Movement joint convenor Farida Akter said that she had observed that the government was detaining some petty offenders to hide big fishes.
She pointed out that no action was taken yet against the former director general of the DGHS even after he was interrogated twice by the ACC.
The arrest of a driver of the health department, she commented, is just the tip of an iceberg.
In the past month, the ACC interrogated former director general of the DGHS Abul Kalam Azad over the Regent Hospital scam and irregularities in procurement of personal protective equipment, including N95 masks, for physicians providing health care to COVID-19 patients.
Scams involving the health sector were exposed of late, including N95 mask scams, controversial deals with Regent Hospital and non-profit JKG Health Care, which were accused of selling fake COVID-19 certificates and running the facilities without licence.
Besides, illegal antibody tests were carried out by some hospitals, including Shahabuddin Medical College Hospital.
A recent scam in the health sector surfaced after an electronic equipment supplier was found to have secured a deal to supply medical products, including KN95 masks and infrared thermometers, who has misappropriated about Tk 8.28 crore without delivering the items.
The supplier, SIM Corporation, obtained the deal worth Tk 9.20 crore for the medical supplies under the World Bank-funded COVID-19 Emergency Response and Pandemic Preparedness project.
In earlier incidents under the same project, automobile parts supplier Jadid Automobiles, which secured a contract for supplying personal protective equipment, including KN95 masks, worth Tk 32 crore to the project, escaped after pocketing the initial payment of Tk 9 crore.
Besides, police on Tuesday started interrogating suspended DGHS driver Abdul Malek who was arrested on Sunday by the Rapid Action Battalion on charge of corruption.
They also recovered a foreign-made pistol, a magazine, five bullets, and counterfeit notes worth Tk 1.50 lakh from him.
A lowly employee of the DGHS, Malek accumulated wealth worth crores of taka through illegal activities, RAB officials said.
According to primary findings of the RAB, Malek owns three multi-storied buildings in the capital, 24 flats, a dairy frim on 15 katha land and other properties worth over 100 crore.
Source: New Age
