Will the corrupt professionals of Technical Education Board continue to enjoy impunity as usual?

I have started to believe that Bangladesh is indeed a paradise for the corrupt. It's difficult for an honest person to stand firm. If someone decides not to indulge in corruption, their life becomes challenging. If they decide not to accept bribes, their colleagues at the next desk will ruin their lives by indulging in corruption. Trying to remove them, citing discomfort with taking bribes, will only lead to the job being lost due to allegations of corruption. In some offices, there's a barrier to bribery rates. If corruption occurs, it will be distributed at a proportional rate. Almost everyone will get a share, and if someone doesn't want to accept bribes, the whole chain gets disrupted.

If you decide not to offer bribes to anyone, your life will become unbearable. Birth certificates, passports, national IDs, driving licenses—whatever it may be, you won't easily get anything done without bribery. Even if you manage to get them, you'll have to endure unbearable suffering for it. However, if you give bribes, you might even get your death certificate. Even if you were a Rohingya, you could still get a passport. You could even get an ID card if you wished.

In our country, bribe-takers, corrupt individuals, loan defaulters, and money launderers are entirely different. Their faces are radiant, they drive expensive cars, and live in modern houses. Donating to mosques and madrasas earns you separate respect in society. Your social status is high. Anyone would be afraid to call you corrupt. If you have a lot of money, you can engage in politics, buy influence, become a member of parliament, and if you're lucky, become a minister if you have a good rapport. Everyone knows that Padma Bank or BASIC Bank has been looted. Has anything happened to them? No, and it won't happen either. To cover up their looting, now Padma Bank and other banks involved in corruption are being merged with better banks. There's no inconvenience in merging. Those who emptied the banks let them be brought under the purview of the law first.

Corruption has infiltrated every sector in Bangladesh. Occasionally, the names of various institutions come to light. Sometimes it's the BRTA, sometimes the Passport Office, sometimes the Health Department. Now, the spotlight is on the Technical Education Board. As I mentioned before, if you pay, you can get anything, even your own death certificate. It's commonly believed that all kinds of certificates can be bought at Nilkhet.

However, the certificates issued by the Technical Education Department are unique. Counterfeits are indistinguishable from the originals. For a mere 30-35 thousand Taka, you can obtain a counterfeit certificate that looks exactly like the original. There's no way to tell the difference. Certificates will be issued based on the board's original sheet, and it will be uploaded to the board's website. As a result, it's difficult to catch them.

The mastermind behind this certificate business at the Technical Education Board is Mr. A. K.M. Shamsuzzaman, who is a system analyst there. Since he has access to the main server of the board's website, creating certificates or mark sheets for him is very easy. If you search from any corner of the world, these fake certificates and mark sheets can be found as authentic. Shamsuzzaman would bring these blank certificates from the board's secret room to his own home to fill them out.

In the past few years, he has sold about 5,000 certificates, which means he has earned millions effortlessly. After the arrest of Shamsujjaman, now the real story is gradually coming out. Based on the information provided by him, the police have arrested Ali Akbar Khan's wife, Shehla Parveen. She has been taken into custody and remanded by the police. Ali Akbar Khan is also being questioned by the police. Seeing the face of Ali Akbar Khan, I was astonished. How can a person with such an innocent face commit such injustice or encourage such injustice?

Shamsujjaman has been involved in the certificate business alone, there is no reason to think otherwise. Many more names have been implicated in this cycle to the police. Everyone has been involved in corruption together. Through this corruption, they have managed to accumulate money in Dhaka over time. According to his accounts, he has given bribes totaling 2 crore Taka just to keep mouths shut. Giving a bribe of 2 crore Taka is insignificant if he could earn 20 crore. Before 2017, Shamsujjaman was temporarily dismissed on charges of corruption. However, he obstructed investigations by bribing various individuals and managed to retain his job. Shamsujjaman has provided the police with a list of at least 25 people involved in this cycle. In 2017, allegations of certificate trading against him were known to the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Ministry of Education, high-ranking officials of the Computer Council, and education beat journalists. He managed everything by paying some people 4 million, some 3 million, and some 1 million Taka, and then vigorously continued his certificate trading business.

Shamsujjaman has also mentioned the names of several journalists who have taken money from him to the police. He has disclosed how much each of them received. Among them, there are also prominent journalists.

As the names of journalists and leaders emerged and became public, some journalists have expressed anger. Some have raised questions about whether broadcasting such statements without verifying and selecting the statements ethically aligns with journalism. I agree with their anger. Broadcasting allegations without verification and selection is indeed inappropriate. One person may wish to bring allegations against another. As the allegations go through the judicial process, the social status of the accused may be tarnished. However, the fact remains that year after year, we journalists have been engaging in such inappropriate practices. We are disseminating the police's statement without any verification or selection. A media trial is worse than a trial. Whether those mentioned by Shamsujjaman have actually taken bribes or not, I don't know. However, it's not a myth that some journalists take bribes, engage in corruption, blackmail for news coverage, take money for publishing news, or take money for covering up the sensational news.

If we don't broadcast it, it doesn't mean the allegation will automatically become false. Whether the allegations are true or false, we don't know. But the fact that Shamsujjaman knew their names, including their workplace, indicates that there was some form of communication between them and Shamsujjaman. It's the police's responsibility to investigate everyone whose names Shamsujjaman has disclosed. If it's true, legal action should be taken. If it's false, that should also be clarified. It is also the responsibility of the workplace of the accused journalists to demand an explanation from them. It's necessary to do this for the sake of journalists' credibility. Keeping allegations hanging doesn't brighten their image. Clarifying allegations actually enhances their credibility.

What Shamsujjaman has revealed is truly a massive web of corruption. If the police want, they can delve deeper into it. Shamsujjaman is not alone. There are many more like him around us. Everyone should be apprehended. But I know nothing will happen. Occasionally, a couple of them might get caught. The rest of the corrupt individuals will continue to enjoy impunity as usual.

Author: Columnist and Head of News, ATN News.