Director General (DG) of Bangladesh Standards & Testing Institution (BSTI) Md. Nazrul Anwar, has taken retirement allowance every month while in service along with cook allowance illegally.
Besides, he has also been accused of irregularities in the use of government vehicles, sources said.
Nazrul Anwar joined BSTI on 24 June 2020 as the Director General. Since then, in addition to the regular salary-allowance, he has illegally withdrawn taka 2,72,678 in 6 months in 2020 in the name of retirement allowance. However, after that time, it was not possible to verify whether he had withdrawn the allowance illegally.
An audit team of the government's Commercial Audit Directorate has objected to the matter after investigation. According to the audit report, there has been an irregularity in the payment of retirement allowance to the Director General while in service.
When contacted, former Cabinet Secretary Ali Imam Majumder told Bangladesh Post that ‘If the tenure of a government official is extended after his retirement or if he is appointed on contract basis in an organization, he can receive retirement allowance in addition to regular salary. Otherwise, there is no chance of receiving retirement allowance while in regular employment.’
After joining as DG, Nazrul had withdrawn taka 1,92,000 a year as Cook allowance till June last year, which is also illegal.
According to the government rules, this facility is applicable for Acting Secretary to Cabinet Secretary. But Nazrul is an additional secretary. So he will not get this facility.
Apart from illegal withdrawal of allowances, there are also specific allegations of irregularities in the use of government vehicles against the Director General.
Sources said, a jeep (Dhaka Metro Gha-15-8213) is officially allotted for Nazrul. In addition to this, he is illegally using another vehicle of BSTI (Dhaka Metro Gha-28-7652). For this, BSTI is bearing the driver's salary, fuel, repairs and other expenses for the vehicle every month.
When contacted, Kamal Ahmed Mojumder, State Minister for Ministry of Industries on Wednesday told Bangladesh Post that he was not aware of the matter. However, he will look into the matter. Strict action will be taken if any irregularity or corruption is found. Corrupt people won’t be spared.
Bangladesh Post tried to to contact BSTI DG through his official and private mobile phone on two days for comment on various allegations. However, he did not respond.
On March 2, Bangladesh Post contacted Mohammad Hossen, PA to DG of BSTI in this regard. He was informed about the various allegations and an attempt was made to know the statement of the DG.
Hossen said, "DG sir is now in a meeting. I will inform him about the matter.’
When contacted again, Hossain said, the matter has been informed to the DG. But he can't talk. Because he is very busy.
However, in the evening of the day, a delegation of Directors General with three members including two Deputy Directors and an Assistant Director came to the office of Bangladesh Post and requested not to publish the report. They claimed the allegations were baseless and would show all the evidence to this reporter on March 5. But until March 15, they could not show any evidence. During this period, Bangladesh Post contacted them several times, but no official statement was received.
