Rampant corruption at Viqarunnisa

Ministry requests ACC to take punitive action

The education ministry on Sunday requested the Anti-Corruption Commission to take action against the teachers and employees of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College who allegedly embezzled around Tk 50 crore of the school’s and government’s fund.

The ministry’s probe, conducted last year, also found that as many as 45 teachers including two principals of Viqarunnisa, one of the country’s most reputed educational institutions, were appointed illegally.

‘The probe report has been sent to the ACC for the taking of necessary action. The criminals have been identified in our probe report and the amount which has been embezzled by the school authorities is of a large volume, so they should face the action of the Anti-Corruption Commission,’ said a ministry official involved with the probe.

‘To my mind, the actual amount of money embezzled and other financial irregularities may involve a much higher amount than the ministry’s probe detected,’ he said. ‘The education adviser on April 10 signed the file sent to the ACC.’

The probe report said that more than Tk 23 crore had been extorted from students’ parents and guardians in the last four years, but the school’s authorities failed to produce any record of depositing the money in any bank. The authorities also paid Tk 3.75 crore to the teachers and employees in excess of their wages and salaries. They also did not deposit Tk 30 lakh exacted as VAT from the teachers and employees to the exchequer, said the report.

The school authorities also gave more than Tk 6 crore interest-free loan to the proposed Viqarunnisa Noon University five years ago, but the loan is yet to be returned, said the report. ‘Gross financial irregularities have also been detected in the construction of a school building.’ According to the probe report, the school incurred a loss of more than Tk 1.50 crore and Tk 1.9 crore due to irregularities in the construction of its Azimpur and Bashundhara branches respectively.

It also found that an excess amount of Tk 2 crore was spent in the construction of a building for English medium students on its main campus.

The report said the recruitment of the two immediate-past principals — Royena Hossain and Tahmina Khanam — was also illegal.

The school started its journey as a kindergarten in 1952. It was upgraded to a secondary school in 1958 and opened higher secondary courses in 1979. The school and college sections have a total of 400 teachers and 15,131 students. Besides its main campus on Bailey Road, it has three branches at Dhanmondi, Basundhara and Azimpur.