Department of youth development: Mired in corruption

Corruption seems to be a constant at the Department of Youth Development.

An investigation at the department has recently found an embezzlement of Tk 13.96 crore in what is the seventh such incident at the department in two years.

The probe committee by the youth and sports ministry and the DYD early this year found 10 officials and employees of the department and the accounts office in Zakiganj, Sylhet, were involved in the racket.

DYD Deputy Director Ali Ashraf illegally allocated the fund to a skills training programme for the youth in Zakiganj in 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 fiscal years even though the programme ended in November 2019, according to findings by the three-member committee headed by Deputy Secretary Fazle Elahi.

Ashraf and the others then withdrew the money and misappropriated it, reads the probe report submitted to the secretary of the youth and sports ministry on January 4 this year.

The committee named the nine others as DYD Deputy Director Farhat Noor, Assistant Director Fazlul Haque, upazila youth development officers (UYDO) Azharul Kabir and Abul Kalam Azad, Accountant Nurul Amin, office assistants Babul Patwary and Jashim Uddin, Accounts Officer Kamal Hossain, and Auditor Iqbal Munshi.

Another probe committee formed by the DYD to look into the same incident found that from November 2019 to June 2022, Tk 16.14 crore was misappropriated from the programme.

The fund for the NSP (National Service Programme) was approved by DYD Director General Azharul Islam Khan.

Contacted, Azharul said on May 31 that there were proposals for approval of such funds for Zakiganj and several other upazilas, and he approved the one for Zakiganj by mistake.

Departmental proceedings have been launched against the DYD officials and employees, he said, adding that the sports ministry had written to the finance ministry, requesting that legal action be taken against Accounts Officer Kamal and Auditor Iqbal.

The Anti-Corruption Commission started investigating the matter after the DYD filed a general diary with Zakiganj Police Station early this year.

Zakiganj Upazila Youth Development Officer Kabir returned Tk 1 crore to the government exchequer during the departmental investigation.

CORRUPTION IS REWARDED

In five separate investigations last year, the DYD found that five assistant upazila youth development officers (AUYDO) misappropriated over Tk 26 lakh meant to provide youths with loans.

The investigations found that AUYDOs Anwarul Kabir misappropriated Tk 17.04 lakh, Golam Faruq Tk 2.38 lakh, Ainul Islam Bhuiyan Tk 1.47 lakh, Dipak Kumar Mondol Tk 3.80 lakh and Rafiqul Islam Sheikh Tk 1.62 lakh.

During the departmental proceedings that followed, all of them admitted that they had committed financial crimes. But the DYD only lowered their salaries and decided to recover the embezzled money from their pension benefits, according to documents.

Except Anwarul, all of them were given the current charge of upazila youth development officer (UYDO) in November 2021. Some of them got the blessing even after multiple departmental cases punished them.

In May last year, a ministry probe found that this was done ignoring the ministry directive of picking the most competent, honest, and experienced officers.

The probe report said large sums might have changed hands when this was done.

Requesting anonymity, several DYD officials said had the corrupt individuals been terminated in line with the Government Employee (discipline and appeal) Rules 2018, such incidents might have not recurred.

Mokhlesur Rahman, a deputy director of the DYD at the time, picked 70 officers, including the four corrupt ones, to give the charge of UYDO from a list of 1,175 AUYDOs. The 70 officers chosen by Mokhlesur were near the bottom of the list which means they were less eligible than those at the top.

The probe committee found several suspicious transactions at the bank account of the wife of one of the 70 officers. The committee also found the screenshot of a message in which an AUYDO asked a colleague to send money to the account.

An Administrative Tribunal in Dhaka in a judgement on July 25 last year said the order giving the 70 AUYDOs bigger roles was illegal.

The parliamentary standing committee on youth and sports ministry in different meetings also ordered cancelling the order.

But the DYD has yet to cancel it because there was bribery behind the order, DYD officials said.

Meanwhile, the public service commission approved a list of 118 AUYDOs prepared for promotion to UYDO. The decision of promotion is pending with State Minister for Youth and Sports Zahid Ahsan Russel since March 6.

Mokhlesur told a probe committee that he only executed the directives of the director (administration) and the DG of DYD.

Asked about the matter, DYD Director General Azahrul did not give a direct answer and said it is not possible for him to see the details in all the files that are usually placed before him.

The order giving them bigger roles has not been cancelled because a court stayed the judgement. But, DYD officers said the authorities could cancel the "current charge" order as the judgement was stayed nine months after the tribunal verdict.

The probe committee also recommended further inquiry into the suspected financial transactions and a separate investigation committee to find out the roles of higher authorities. None of these have been done yet.

Majbah Uddin, who was the secretary of the ministry at the time, framed charges against Mokhlesur, but in December last year he acquitted Mokhlesur.

Contacted, Mejbah Uddin said he acquitted Mokhlesur because the allegation of financial corruption was "not proved".

Asked why he did not form committees to investigate whether there was a shady financial transaction and the roles of DYD director and DG, he said, "I will talk to the current secretary about forming the committees."

Mokhlesur was transferred to Narsingdi as a deputy director following the allegations. But a number of his colleagues in Narsingdi say he often remains absent and spends the time at the head office.

Mokhlesur, however, maintains that he attends office regularly.