TDS Desk:

Perhaps a world record, or a national record, has been created in the Secretariat, the den of the country’s bureaucracy.

A secretary found evidence of corruption against an executive engineer and suspended him. Two days later, the engineer wrote a letter to the state minister. Seven days later, the same secretary issued another notification saying that no evidence of corruption was found, the dismissal order was withdrawn and he was reinstated in his post.

Bureaucratic traps, red tape violence—these phrases are widely used in this country. These words have been used to describe the slow pace of work in government offices. It is fairly well known that no work in the country’s bureaucracy can progress without ‘special arrangements’. In this situation, the above incident is being seen as a ‘special miracle’.

Analysis of the documents found in the investigation shows that the Secretary of the Local Government Department, Md. Shahidul Hasan, issued a notification on the 9th of this month ordering the temporary suspension of the Executive Engineer of the Public Health Engineering Department Md. Tabibor Rahman Talukder.

In the notification, the Secretary clearly wrote that the ‘primary truth of irregularities and corruption has been proven in the investigation of the investigation committee formed by the Local Government Department’ against the Executive Engineer and the Director of two major public health projects Md. Tabibor Rahman Talukder.’ At the end of the notification, as usual, it is written, ‘This order has been issued in the public interest.’ But this public interest order of the Secretary has lasted only 11 days. It took only seven working days to prove their own investigation false and Tabibor Talukder innocent!

A search of the documents shows that Executive Engineer Tabibor Talukder filed a written application with the state minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives on April 12, two days after the conviction, requesting consideration of the sentence.

In the application, he said, “If the allegations against me are verified through a re-investigation, the real truth will be revealed and my innocence will be proven.”

In the application, Tabibor Talukder, mentioning the two major projects entrusted to him, wrote exactly as follows: ‘In such a situation, taking the above issues into consideration on humanitarian grounds, you are specifically requested to revoke the temporary suspension order imposed on me and review it through a re-investigation.’

At the very top of this application, there is an instruction written in pen: ‘Secretary, LGED; Discuss on an urgent basis.’ Below the writing is a signature, below that the date of that day 12-4-26. Also stamped below that—Mir Shahe Alam MP; State Minister for Local Government, Ministry of Rural Development and Cooperatives, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

And at the very bottom of the application, another handwritten note in pen ink reads: ‘Discussions have been held with the Honorable State Minister. Discuss the legal process in this regard.’

Signature below this handwriting; same date below; seal below: Md. Shahidul Hasan; Secretary; Local Government Department.

Then another notification issued on Wednesday, April 22, signed by the same Secretary Md. Shahidul Hasan, said that the allegations of misconduct and corruption raised against the said Executive Engineer of Public Health Tabibor Rahman Talukder, ‘as per 3(b) and 3(d) of the Government Servants (Disciplinary and Appeal) Rules, 2018 against the Departmental Case No. 01/2026 filed by the Local Government Department, have not been proven.

Then it was said that his temporary suspension order would be withdrawn and he would be reinstated as director of those two projects. ‘The period of his suspension will be considered as working period’ is also written in the notification. Finally, as usual, it is written here too, ‘This order has been issued in the public interest.’

After the issuance of this order the day before yesterday, people in favor of Executive Engineer Tabibor were seen eating sweets in the relevant public health office yesterday.

However, officials at various levels of the Public Health Department said yesterday that Tabibor Rahman is the only official who has been ‘cleansed’ through an investigation in an incredibly fast time and has been reinstated in his post.

We have searched a lot and have not found the report of the investigation committee formed against that executive engineer anywhere. Even when the investigation committee was formed, when and how the committee worked – no one in the department has said that they know anything about these questions. Officials also believe that no such investigation has actually taken place.

Analyzing the two notifications, it can be seen that in the first one, the departmental case was decided as the allegations of corruption against Tabibor Rahman were proven. The second notification issued after seven working days mentions the filing of a departmental case (No. 01/2026) as per the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules-2018. However, the date of the case is not mentioned here.

When the matter was raised with former additional secretary and public administration expert Mohammad Firoz Mia, he said, “If there is a departmental case, the date must be mentioned in the notification. In this case, the fact that the date is not mentioned is mysterious.”

On the condition of anonymity, several officials of the Department of Public Health Engineering said that, the notification was issued on April 9 ordering the temporary suspension of Tabibor; on April 12, he made a written application to the State Minister. If the case was filed in the meantime, then according to the rules, his application is not acceptable. And if the case was filed after his application, then there is considerable doubt about when it was disposed of.

A look at the calendar showed that there were seven working days between April 12 and 22. It is mysterious that a departmental case was filed against an officer within these seven days, and then he was investigated and proven innocent.

Public administration expert Mohammad Firoz Mia said that, the incident of making a written application to the minister or state minister for the withdrawal or reconsideration of the temporary suspension order is against the Government Servants Code of Conduct. He cannot directly apply to the state minister. For this act, there is a scope for a departmental case against that official in light of the Government Servants Code of Conduct-1979.

A look at this code shows that section 20 of it states, ‘No government servant shall directly or indirectly approach any member of parliament or non-government person to intervene in any matter on his behalf.’

Firoz Mia also said that if a departmental case is filed against a government employee, there is no scope for appeal until it is resolved by following the proper steps. Now it remains to be seen whether the steps of the case filed against that official have been followed properly or not. However, the issuance of two notifications and his acquittal in just seven working days seems to have happened unusually quickly. There is no precedent for resolving a departmental case so quickly.

The Chief Engineer of Public Health was called and SMSed several times yesterday, but he did not respond. Later, when Additional Chief Engineer (Planning) Ehteshamul Rasel Khan was called, he picked up but refused to speak on the matter. At one point, he said that he was not the responsible officer to speak on the matter.

When asked about this matter to Deputy Project Director Md. Anwaruzzaman, who is responsible for providing information, he advised him to apply under the Right to Information Act. He claimed that he did not know anything more than that.

When the Secretary of the Local Government Department, Md. Shahidul Hasan, was called yesterday to ask for his statement, he also did not pick up.

And when the ‘hero’ of the incident, Executive Engineer Tabibor Rahman Talukder, was contacted last night, he did not pick up the phone at first. Although he showed interest in talking via WhatsApp message, he remained unanswered. When he tried again after twenty minutes, he picked up the phone. Although he admitted to the departmental case against him, he did not want to talk directly about the overall issue. When told that he needed his statement regarding the complaint, he said, ‘You need it, I don’t need it.’ Saying this, Executive Engineer Tabibor hung up the phone.

Where it all started: Tabibor Rahman is the director of two projects: ‘Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene for Human Resource Development (First Revised)’ and ‘Rural Sanitation’. He joined the Department of Public Health Engineering as an Assistant Engineer on July 25, 1999. He was then promoted to the post of Executive Engineer on November 6, 2022. It is learnt that Tabibor was appointed as the director of the Rural Sanitation Project in a notification issued on September 30 last year and signed by Deputy Secretary Md. Ibadat Hossain. This project, with a budget of Tk 1,989 crore, plans to construct more than 274,000 twin pit latrines and about 2,000 community toilets for the poor in remote areas of the country.

When Tabibor was appointed as the director of this project, there was a lot of tension in the Public Health Engineering Department. Because Tabibor was involved in widespread irregularities in the previous project. Its implementation is not yet 100% complete.

A field investigation revealed widespread irregularities in the project. The government’s Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED) report also revealed information about corruption and embezzlement in the project. It is alleged that Tabibor Rahman embezzled project money in collusion with contractors. The tender specifications were not followed in most of the works. It is said that 80 percent of the public toilets built under the project are already unused and abandoned.

A survey report by IMED published late last year said that out of 19 toilets built in the community clinics inspected, 17 were found to be unusable. The reasons for this situation are the lack of necessary cleaning materials and funds for cleaning workers, lack of proper management, and fear of theft of fittings. Not all of the 122 latrines inspected were installed as per the specifications.

The day before the notification was issued, i.e. on April 21, State Minister for Planning Jonayed Saki ordered an investigation into irregularities in his project. Referring to the directive, Bancharampur Upazila Executive Officer Tariqul Islam said, “The State Minister has instructed to investigate various irregularities in the ongoing work of the Public Health Engineering Department in 13 unions at a cost of crores of taka.”

There is no way to understand what is really going on inside the Public Health Engineering Department surrounding Tabibor Rahman’s corruption from the outside. However, there was a festive atmosphere on the sixth floor of 14, Shaheed Captain Mansur Ali Sarani, Kakrail yesterday. Sweets have been distributed since morning. Since Tabibor Rahman was proven innocent, sweets were sent to the rooms of various officials on his behalf.

When I went to the head office of the department yesterday, Thursday, it was seen that the situation was somewhat gloomy in various departments. There was widespread whispering. Many officials expressed surprise at Tabibor’s return after eating sweets.

It is known that Tabibor Rahman is a member of the influential syndicate of the fallen Awami League government and is also associated with the Bangabandhu Engineers Council. Even during the interim government, he was mysteriously blessed by influential circles and remained in good health. That situation has not changed yet.

(Source: The report was translated exactly from The Daily Kaler Kantho)