Shamim Jahangir
The Food and Disaster Management Ministry has constituted a five-member high powered committee to investigate embezzlement of the huge amount of money from the caretaker government-initiated 100-day programme for 20 lakh extreme poor across the country.
Additional Secretary of the Food and Disaster Management Ministry (FDMM) AKM Abdul Awal Majumder leads the inquiry team.
According to the Ministry sources, nearly 12 lakh people out of 20 lakh in vulnerable areas in 480 upazilas had come under the then caretaker government 100-day employment generation schemes.
Under the scheme, the Ministry had already spent Tk 12,00 crore to create employment opportunities for 100 days for people in vulnerable areas.
The Ministry found misappropriation of the project fund, a high official of the Ministry yesterday admitted.
Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque yesterday told the reporters that the Government has started inquiry of misuse of the 100-day programme fund of the caretaker government.
Asking what amount of fund from the project was misused, the Minister said that the government would publish the investigation report in public after completion of investigation.
The Ministry has already prepared a list of 45 members to conduct next phase of the project properly, a senior official of the Food Ministry said.
The officials will monitor district level activities of the 100 days programme for extreme poor, he added.
AKM Abdul Awal Majumder yesterday told the New Nation that we have prepared a report how the rest of the amount of Tk 800 crore will be utilised properly under the programme.
“The inquiry team will suggest to hold series of roundtable conferences with the elected representatives, media personnel and other stakeholders to make the next phase of the project more transparent and credible,” he said.
Abdul Awal said that we would present a concrete report to identify the causes of the irregularities of the first phase of the project.
“It is not possible to trace out the culprits as they didn’t leave any evidence of the misuse of the project fund,” he further said.
Courtesy: nation.ittefaq.com
