Sports Directorate turns into a den of corruption

Golam Mostafa Jibon: Allegation has been intensified that Sport Directorate has turned into a den of corruption and irregularities due to lack of proper monitoring by the high-ups.
A grand festival of anomalies in the name of manpower recruitment is going on in the sector on the tip of nose of the authorities concerned.
Meanwhile, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has found several documents of corruption and irregularities in recruitments.
The roots of irregularities of some officials are very deep. It has been alleged that 25 officers and employees of the directorate have been appointed recently with fake addresses and fake documents. In exchange of the job, a bribe of Tk 15 lakh to Tk 20 lakh wasrealized from everyone. According to the allegations, Bakhtiyar Khalji, a personal assistant (PA) to the director of the directorate, is behind the all corruptions and controlling all the offices.
Apart from the appointments, there is also evidence of misappropriation of funds from various scheduled tournaments against Bakhtiyar. He basically carried out most anomalies in collaboration with the former director KM Ali Reza. ACC is nowinvestigating into the matter.
The State Minister Zahid Ahsan Russell publicly announced that irregularities and corruption would not be allowed in the Ministry and any of its agencies, when he took charge of the Ministry of Youth and Sports on January 8 in 2019. But in almost three and a half years, the irregularities and corruption of the agencies of the ministry have not been eradicated. Even no action was taken against any official involved with irregularities and corruption. As a result, irregularities and corruption are going on unabated in different agencies of the ministry.
The Directorate of Sports under the Ministry of Youth and Sports plays an important role in improving the quality of sports at the grassroots level of the country. The Bangladesh Sports Directorate organizes various age-based tournaments for secondary and higher secondary students from primary level. But the investigation into the hostage situation of this sports directorate has revealed a grim scenario. Although,being athird-class employee and the personal assistant of the director of the sports directorate, he is surprisingly controlling the sports directorate of the country. Allegations have intensified that Bakhtiyar Khalji, also a personal assistant to the director, is controlling the recruitment trade in the sports directorate in exchange of large amount of bribe by forging documents.
On 17 October last, 25 officers and employees of the directorate were appointed. He has made arrangements to recruit 10 people including his brother by forging the national identity (NID) card in that appointment.
It is learned that there is no quota but the candidates of those districts have been arranged to be recruited for the job in exchange of Tk 15 to Tk 20 lakh. In this work, he has forged the district address of the national identity card of those candidates.
According to the voter ID information of Manjurul Hasan, who joined as a shorthand typist computer operator, the permanent and temporary address was shown asvillage Talebtari village in ward-5 of Sarai union under Kaunia police station in Rangpur district. Genuinely, its reality was found. But in context of taking the job, he was influenced by the Bakhtiyar Khalji group and changed his address keeping the names of his father and mother as correct. Chairman of Khashpukuria Union inquired about Manjurul and gave a written statement mentioning that there was no one by this name in Khasdeldarpur village and he did not know the person and his family members.
Earlier on September 7 in 2020, a notification was issued to appoint 20 people to nine posts in the Sports Directorate. So that 20 people from Rangpur have been recruited by making fake documents, but according to the district quota, no one is supposed to get a job in this district. The investigation has revealed that it was completely controlled by Bakhtiyar Khalji. His younger brother Moniruzzaman, who was posted in Rangpur, got the job by showing his permanent address in Bogura,although, they are permanent residents of Rangpur. Liton Mia, who works in Jhenaidah, is a resident of Rangpur, but got a job using Gaibandha’s address. Abu Bakar Siddique, who works in Mohammadpur in Dhaka, is a resident of Rangpur, but has taken a job using address of Pabna district.
Rajbul Islam, who works in Bagerhat, is a resident of Rangpur, but took a job using the address of Bogura district. MH Munnais working in the same district. Although Munna is a resident of Rangpur, he took a job using the address of Kurigram district. According to the national identity card, Manjurul Hasan’s permanent address is in Rangpur. However, his permanent address has been shown in Sirajganj.
Various district sports officials claimed that Bakhtiyar used to put pressure on the officials in different districts to commit these irregularities. Besides, it has been claimed in the written complaint given to the ACC against Bakhtiyar that this Bakhtiyar exerted influence over all the activities of the directorate. He forced everyone to indulge in irregularities and corruption.
Deputy Director Nurul Islam, who was the member secretary of the recruitment committee of the department, did not agree to make any comment about Bakhtiyar Khalji.
The newly-appointed director of the sports department, Mohammad Noor Alam Siddiqui (joint secretary), said he did not know anything about it. He talked to the then director and requested to know the matter. In this regard, the former director KM Ali Reza said, all the work has been done in accordance with the rules. If there is any irregularity in the field regarding recruitment, the director should not know that. The officials in charge of the field know all this.