Tension gripped the country's biggest public hospital since Saturday morning when the Ministry of Health sent the final list of appointees to the hospital authorities. Sources said the authorities will soon start sending appointment letters to 'successful' candidates.

About 12,000 people have applied against 243 posts of class three and class four employees that include lower division clerk, linen keeper, driver, office assistant, carpenter and security guard in Dhaka Medical College and the DMCH.

Written test for the job of class three employees was held last month while the authorities did not take such test for class four job aspirants.

Hospital sources seeking anonymity said many of the candidates who claimed to have bribed the officials left their answer sheets blank or incomplete and those were filled up later giving them high marks for qualifying for the posts.

Talking to The Daily Star some candidates burst into anger yesterday saying that their names are not on the list of appointees. They have given Tk 30,000 to Tk 70,000 to employees' leaders or BNP leaders for getting appointment, they alleged.

"I gave a leader of DMCH Fourth Class Employees' Union Tk 30,000 a year ago and another Tk 20,000 after the interview," said a job seeker seeking anonymity.

"I gave Tk 30,000 in advance to a health ministry official after he assured me of giving the job of a fourth class employee in the hospital on a Tk 80,000 contract," said a youth who works in a shop near the DMCH compound.

The frustrated job seekers said those who have paid Tk 2 lakh or more for a post of a fourth class employee have got appointments. Many of them alleged they did not receive interview cards even after paying bribes.

There are allegations that the 40-year-old wife of Osman Ali, vice-president of DMCH Class Four Employees' Union, is one of the 'successful' candidates. Besides, Osman's son and a nephew are also on the final list.

Administrative Officer of the DMCH Sohrab Uddin Khan in collusion with leaders of the employees' unions of the hospital have prepared the final list of successful candidates, who already paid huge sums, the sources alleged.

Two sons and a son-in-law of Shahjahan Kabir, general secretary of DMCH Class Four Employees Union, were learnt to have been qualified for jobs.

When contacted, Sohrab Uddin Khan denied the allegations saying, "I am not involved with any corruption since I am not a member of the selection committee. I also do not have any association with the leaders of the class four employees."

The health ministry earlier investigated some alleged corruption by Sohrab. The ministry in a letter on February 17, 2002 asked the hospital administration to explain why he was not transferred from the hospital where he had been working for long.