Mou Khandakar
The Palli Daridro Bimochon Foundation (PDBF) under the Rural Development and Cooperatives Division is found involved in 21 financial irregularities worth about Tk 700 crore.
Allegations are rife that top officials of the PDBF embezzled 700 crore through financial irregularities and of the total amount, around Tk 500 crore was lost due to misuse of loans.
In addition to loan-related anomalies, savings interest rates for beneficiaries were reduced from 6 per cent to 3 per cent, raising a question about the PDBF’s transparency.
Besides, the PDBF is facing allegation of corruption in recruiting people at the field level.
Muhammad Maududur Rashid Safdar is the incumbent Managing Director (MD) of the PDBF. His appointment to the top post is controversial, sources concerned said..
The allegations against the PDBF include mismanagement of clients’ deposits by keeping them in leasing companies instead of banks, making payments without delivering goods, inflating the price of solar home systems to more than double the market value.
Corruption and recruitment scandal
Maududur Rashid Safdar abusing his key position have allegedly mishandled Fixed Deposit Receipts (FDRs). He has been under scrutiny over the allegation.
He has kept FDRs ranging from Tk 120 to Tk 1500 crore in different banks violating PDBF regulations. As per the PDBF rules, there should have no FDRs which should be used for daily fieldwork activities.
Before 2017, a demand note seeking recruitment of 304 field organisers was submitted to the PDBF MD. However, through manipulation of the recruitment exam results and without the board’s approval or the recruitment committee’s recommendation, a total of 727 field organisers were hired, including additional 423 people under the same advertisement.
It is alleged that Shafiul Islam, former acting joint director and member secretary of the recruitment committee, manipulated the exam scores of 24 candidates, raising their marks to show that they met the requirement for the recruitment. This recruitment caused a financial loss of Tk 44.44 crore for the PDBF.
These illegally recruited field organisers are still working with the PDBF. Some of them were hired by using false documents.
In another case, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) audit also found irregularities in the recruitment of 45 officers.
Irregularities have been found in Safdar’s own appointment as MD. He was initially appointed in December 2020 for three years’ term, but his tenure was extended for another three years in October 2023, violating the organisation’s employment regulations.
Requirement of age limit for reappointment to the MD is 62 years, but Safdar became MD by hiding his real age of 64 years.
A writ petition challenging the legality of his reappointment as MD was filed with High Court in 2022. Loan defaults and financial losses PDBF’s loan management system has also been called into question. According to its policy, loans should be recovered in 49 weekly instalments. However, an audit revealed that Tk 218 crore in loans remains unpaid by 374,609 borrowers.
The PDBF claims that the Covid-19 pandemic causes the rise in loan defaults, but the audit report says that the loans remained outstanding much before the pandemic.
Allegations of mismanagement in solar home system project
The solar home system project has also been riddled with corruption. In 2014, the PDBF awarded a contract to Lazuk Electric Company Ltd to provide solar home systems, but the company failed to deliver solar home systems. Without making delivery of solar systems, the PDBF paid the company Tk 56.73 lakh. It is also alleged thatthe PDBF purchased poor quality solar systems at inflated prices, causing financial losses of Tk 17.22 crore.
Moreover, old and damaged materials were provided, resulting in a misappropriation of Tk 7.7 crore. This amount was deposited in the bank accounts of Shahid Hossain (Selim), an additional director of PDBF, and his nephew Saiful Islam.
According to PDBF sources, Shahid currently serves as the head of the PDBF’s field operations department, while Saiful is an assistant accounts officer at the Sherpur office in Bogura.
The PBDF funds intended for rural poverty alleviation were illegally deposited in leasing companies like International Leasing and Finance, Premier Leasing, Reliance Finance, Phoenix Finance, and Union Capital. Attempts to recover the Tk 43.34 crore deposited in these institutions, especially those associated with the controversial PK Halder, have been unsuccessful.
When asked about the irregularities in recruitment and various allegations against him, PDBF’s MD Maududur Rashid Safdar said that the allegations are completely baseless.
He said that the recruitment has been made following the decision of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, and there is no question of irregularities in this regard.
The Local Government Division Ministry formed a committee last year to investigate the allegations against PDBF’s leadership asking the committee to submit report within 30 working days.
However, concerns remain regarding the impartiality of this investigation as the current PBDF leadership continues to hold their positions.
Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), expressed concern over the mismanagement and embezzlement within an organisation tasked with poverty alleviation.
He emphasised the need for identifying those responsible for this corrupt practice and holding them accountable for their actions.
