By IANS,
Dhaka : A former speaker of Bangladesh parliament and two former officials may be asked to return Taka 17.1 million ($285,000) that a parliamentary committee has said were “misappropriated” by them.
Former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, his deputy Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui and chief whip of the Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) Handaker Delwar Hossain, drew the money as medical allowances and additional fuel allowances “ignoring the law”, an all-party parliamentary probe committee has ruled.
The three boycotted the summons issued by the committee that will submit its report to the house next Tuesday, charging them with corruption, The Daily Star said.
The committee recommended that the money be recovered and criminal charges be filed against them if they failed to return the money.
“We decided to place the probe report in parliament on July 7. We want to read out the findings of our investigation in the house so that people can know what happened in the parliament secretariat in the past,” Shajahan Khan, a member of the probe body, told The Daily Star.
The house will decide the next course of action based on the findings of the probe, he said.
Corruption in the parliament secretariat during the last seven years has become an issue of parliamentary debate in Bangladesh.
The former speaker had attended international parliamentary meetings even though there was no parliament in existence during 2007-08.