The Anti-Corruption Commission on Sunday said that the commission found corruption of Saima Wazed Putul, daughter of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, in getting appointment as regional director for South-East Asia at the World Health Organisation.
Besides, the ACC filed two separate cases against former state minister for religious affairs Faridul Haque Khan and his wife Afroza Haque over amassing illegal wealth worth Tk聽4.07 crore.
ACC director general (prevention) Aktar Hossain while talking to reporters at the commission鈥檚 head office in the capital Dhaka said that an ACC enquiry found that Saima had misused the state resources and adopted unlawful activities for securing the appointment at WHO.
He also said that the ACC enquiry team was examining whether Saima could be brought back to the country.
Earlier on the day, the ACC in a release said, 鈥楾here are convincing allegations of corruption against Saima.鈥�
鈥業t is disgraceful for the country to allow such a person to continue in the WHO鈥檚 prestigious position, which may severely tarnish country鈥檚 image in the global arena,鈥� it said.
The ACC said that Saima was included as entourage member in various state visits without any reasonable ground.
The information given about the qualification of Saima as the candidate for WHO position was not correct, it said.
It was also found that during submission of the nomination, Saima was a Canadian citizen with valid passport of that country, it said.
More than one hundred officials and delegates from Bangladesh attended the 76th WHO Conference in New Delhi of India from October 30 to November 2, 2023, wasting state money, the enquiry found.
To get WHO appointment, Saima had wasted a huge amount of public money by abusing her family influence and the state power of her close relatives, said the ACC.
A separate enquiry revealed that Saima acquired a 10 katha plot in the diplomatic zone of the Purbachal New Town project in Dhaka through corruption and abusing her family鈥檚 political influence.
The ACC prosecuted her along with others in this connection.
Apart from this, Saima opened an organisation namely 鈥楽uchana Foundation鈥� for which she forcibly collected gifts and donation, and embezzled the money, according to the ACC release.
She also embezzled a huge amount of state money by showing fake projects for 鈥楢utistic Cell鈥� under the health department of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the release said, adding that the ACC was conducting an enquiry into the allegations against Saima.
It also said that Saima exerted illegal influence on the National Board of Revenue to keep the income of the Suchana Foundation out of tax net, which caused a huge financial loss to the government.
On Sunday, the ACC filed two separate cases against former state minister for religious affairs Faridul Haque Khan and his wife Afroza Haque with the ACC鈥檚 integrated district office in Dhaka-1, said ACC DG Aktar Hossain.
According to the ACC case, Faridul amassed assets worth Tk聽3.04 crore, which are inconsistent with his known sources of income.
The enquiry also revealed that Faridul and his associates conducted suspicious transactions amounting to over Tk 5.24 crore through multiple bank accounts.
Afroza was prosecuted on charges of amassing illegal wealth worth Tk聽1.02 crore.
