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Irregularities in Recruitment, Promotion at BTRC: Govt probe panel finds authenticity

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A probe body formed by the government has found the proof of irregularities in recruitment and promotion at Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

After conducting an inclusive inquiry, the panel has said those promotions and recruitments were made flouting the relevant rules of the government as well as the BTRC.

The Posts and Telecommunications Ministry constituted the two-member investigation committee on March 7 last to look into the irregularities in recruitment and promotion at BTRC after the Daily Sun ran a report titled “Recruitment, Promotion: Massive irregularities found at BTRC” on January 25.
Appreciating the report of the English daily, the probe body has said, “Truth of recruitments and promotions by BTRC flouting the rules has been reflected in the report.”

The recruitment of over 100 staffers and promotion of at least a dozen of officials to different posts at BTRC from 2009 to 2018 took place flouting the rules and regulations.

The telecom regulator recruited manpower having lack of required educational qualifications and exceeding age limit, violating the conditions of circulars.

Besides, many officials were promoted although they lacked qualifications, experiences and exceeded the government age bar.

But the ministry and BTRC high officials are reportedly trying to protect those recruited and promoted officials from punitive measures thinking that the identities of the corrupt elements would be unmasked and they will face action, sources say.

Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar told the Daily Sun that administrative action would be taken if there is any violation of the BTRC rules and regulations in recruitment and promotion. “The government will force those rules violators to abide by the rules. It’ll work as per its rules,” he said.
Mentioning that he is yet to get the report, Jabbar said there may be some exceptions as there was lack of rules and regulations during the establishment of BTRC.

The ministry formed the two-member committee with its Joint Secretary Muhammad Abdul Hannan as the convener and Director (Admin) of BTRC M Hafiz Uddin as the member asking them to submit the report within 15 working days.

Later, the deadline for submitting the report was extended to April 30. However, the report was finally submitted to the ministry on August 11.

About the delay in filing the report, the probe body attributed it to not getting necessary papers from BTRC in time and the countrywide lockdown following the deterioration of the coronavirus situation.

Talking to the Daily Sun, probe committee convener Abdul Hannan said they have already submitted the report to the ministry. “Our findings have been mentioned in written in the probe report. But, we can’t make any comment on the report to the media,” he said.

The probe report, obtained by the Daily Sun, categorically mentioned that the recruitment of Sharmin Sultana is unlawful and her promotion is also unlawful.

She crossed the age limit by nearly one year by the time she was recruited, but the recruitment was made breaching the set conditions.

The BTRC in its recruitment advertisement sought at least second class in Honours in Computer Engineering/Computer Science from any recognised university while the age limit was set at 30.

Sharmin, who took her degree in Telecommunications Management from DeVry University of the USA, did not fulfill the conditions.

It has been mentioned in the report that Sharmin did not apply for the desired post while she had also lack of educational qualifications and age bar. But she got the first class job due to mysterious role of the BTRC, said the report.

According to the report, Sharmin was recruited as an assistant director violating the age limit and condition of educational qualifications.

According to the circular, the candidate must have to attain Master’s degree but she permanently joined the BTRC in 2012 while her certificate of Master’s of Science in telecommunication engineering was submitted to the regulatory body in 2014.

The probe committee found violation of Article 29 of the Constitution and BTRC’s Recruitment Rules-2009 over the recruitment of some 29 people, including 27 assistant directors, an administrative officer and a deputy assistant director, without taking any competitive test.

According to the Article 29, there shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in respect of employment or office in the service of the Republic but the BTRC has violated the article.

The telecom regulator also violated its Recruitment Rules-2009 as it considered those 29 persons as departmental candidates but no one of them was departmental candidate.

According to the rules, a person has to work at BTRC for at least two years to become a departmental candidate, but no one of them fulfilled that criterion.

Over the recruitment of 21 people, including one deputy director, three senior assistant directors, five assistant directors, one administrative officer and 11 deputy assistant directors, the probe committee termed the incident violation of Article 29 of the Constitution and BTRC’s Recruitment Rules-2009.

It also found violation of rules in recruiting M Nurunnabi, Anamika Bhakta and Begum Sabina Islam as senior assistant directors as there is no option to recruit against the post of senior assistant director directly as it is to be fulfilled through promotion only. So, the Article 29 and rule 18(4) of BTRC Act 2001 were violated here.

The probe body mentioned in the report that Sanjib Kumar Singha, Nafisa Mallick and Asaduzaman were appointed as assistant directors in technical posts violating rules and regulations although they had no academic qualifications.

Over the recruitments in 2018 and 2019, the probe panel said it is clear that the recruitments were not transparent as the BTRC failed to provide sufficient papers to this end.

According to the report, BTRC hired Management Information Systems (MIS) department of Dhaka University for taking examination but no result sheet of MIS letter head was found. The number sheet was not submitted on an official paper and there were no date and issue number. Even there was no trace whether any further examination was taken or not.

The probe body also found that the promotion of M Towfiqul Alam from personal assistant to personal officer was made violating the promotion rules.

There is no option to appoint Towfiqul to the post of assistant director (general) as there is no such post in the organogram. His promotion to assistant director (finance and revenue) was a violation of rules as he had no such qualifications.

The promotion of MA Taleb Hossain, Aftab M Rashedul Wadud and M Yakub Ali Bhuiyan to the post of director was also done violating the rules, the probe panel said.

It also found irregularities in preparing seniority list violating 4(ka) and 4(kha) Non-Cadre Officers and Employee (Seniority and Promotion) Rules, 2011 and Officers and Employee (Seniority and Promotion) Rules, 2009 of BTRC.

The probe body found irregularities in appointing non-technical persons to technical posts.

Besides, the BTRC Recruitment Rules 2009 were violated in recruiting 17 retired armed forces members as drivers.

The probe panel also found violation of rules in recruiting 30 people, including a deputy director, five assistant directors, an administrative officer, three office assistants, one protocol assistant, seven MLSS and 11 drivers, in 2009 even after they exceeded the approved age limit.

BTRC Chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder told the Daily Sun that he will look into the matter after getting the report of the probe committee. “The recruitments were made several years ago, so we’ll look into the matter after getting the probe report,” he said.