4 sacked over graft at Youth Development Dept

The government today dismissed four officials of the Department of Youth Development (DYD) from service on charges of corruption.

The four officials are Ali Ashraf and Farhat Noor, deputy director of DYD Barguna and DYD Magura respectively; Fazlul Haque, assistant director of DYD Jhenidah; and Abul Kalam Azad, upazila youth development officer of Gulshan.

The dismissal was announced through four separate gazette notifications signed by Mohiuddin Ahmed, secretary of the ministry.

Ashraf was sacked for his involvement in illegally allocating about Tk 13.96 crore and assisting in the embezzlement of the sum, according to the notification.

Noor and Azad were terminated as the allegation of their involvement in the process of illegally allocating about Tk 11.52 crore, embezzling the amount and assisting the embezzlement were proven beyond doubt, reads the notifications.

At the time of the incident, Noor was serving as the deputy director (training) at the office of the Director General and Azad was posted at the National Service Cell of the same office.

Haque, who was posted as accounts officer at the DG office, is dismissed for his role in illegally allocating about Tk 9.08 crore and aiding the misappropriation.

The dismissal comes days after the Public Service Commission (PSC) secretariat said the four accused are likely to be slapped with major penalties as they are proven guilty of misconduct as per the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 2018.

The PSC gave its opinion on February 8 in response to the four letters the ministry sent on January 28 seeking advice on the decision to sack the officials.

As the PSC appoints the first- and the second-class officers, seeking its advice on firing is a procedural requirement, according to DYD officials.

Early last year, an investigation by the youth and sports ministry found 10 officials, including the four, involved in embezzling the money.

Ashraf and some others illegally allocated the fund to a training and employment programme for the youth in Sylhet's Zakiganj in fiscals 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 even though the programme ended in November 2019, according to the probe findings.

They withdrew the money and misappropriated it in connivance with each other, reads the probe report.

Following the investigation, the ministry filed departmental cases against the four and formed inquiry boards.

The inquiry boards advised dismissing the four officials after reviewing their replies to show-cause notices and considering all other aspects.

The process of taking punitive actions against four other accused -- Azharul Kabir, upazila youth development officer; Nurul Amin, accountant; and Babul Patwary and Jashim Uddin, both office assistants -- is underway, according to officials.

The other accused are Kamal Hossain, Zakiganj upazila accounts officer, and Iqbal Munshi, auditor.