The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is going to submit chargesheet against former envoy ATM Nazim Ullah Chowdhury, on charge of tampering with his birth date in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) to extend his diplomatic service and other corruption.

Sources with the ACC told BSS, ATM Nazim Ullah, a former Bangladesh ambassador in Moscow, continued his diplomatic service for more two years by producing a modified birth certificate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in 2003.

He was again appointed as the ambassador in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for two more years in 2006 on a contract basis, where he wasted a huge amount of the state money through corruption.

ACC filed the case against ATM Nazim Ullah with Shahbag thana on May 14, this year on that charge and subsequently a team of the commission led by Deputy Director Abdullah Al Zahid took the assignment to verify the allegations.

The team scrutinised personal file of the envoy and other documents in the (MoFA) and visited UAE to be confirmed about the allegations.

A highly placed source in the ACC said the investigation team has already submitted its report to the commission and the chargesheet in the case is expected to submit by next week.

The team found that envoy Nazim Ullah passed his Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination from Sargodha School under Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Lahore in 1961.

He was appointed as a section officer in the MoFA in December 1974. At that time he submitted his SCC certificate in which his date of birth was shown as February 9, 1946.

But, the envoy managed a duplicate SSC certificate and submitted it to the ministry in 2002, in which he showed his birth date as February 9, 1948, two years less than the date in his main certificate.

According to the ACC team, the envoy tampered with his actual age in the SSC certificate and managed a duplicate certificate from Lahore Education Board by using power with an ulterior motive to defer his retirement age from 2003 to 2005.

During his service in Moscow, he illegally received about Taka 65 lakh from the government exchequer as his salaries, allowances and other benefits, the sources said.

The ACC team also found that Nazim Ullah has two years break of study after SSC. But, he concealed the information at the time of joining the public service.

His personal file in the MoFA also missed his main application form and police verification certificate that a government employee must submit after joining the civil service, the sources said.

Nazim Ullah got the ambassadorial job in UAE in 2006 where wasted about Taka 20 lakh of the state for his house rent, transport and salaries of the personal staff.

Talking to BSS, ACC Director General (administration) Colonel Hanif Iqbal confirmed the submission of the report of the investigating team and said the report is expected to place before the commission's approval next week.

Soon after approval of the commission, the chargesheet would be placed before the court for trial, he added.