Special Correspondent:
According to the law, although the university is supposed to work to protect its funds, the private Prime Asia University’s treasurer, Dr. Iffat Jahan, has instead led the looting of those funds. He has directly and indirectly embezzled crores of taka from the university by forming a syndicate of dishonest trustees, acting vice-chancellors, and directors of the finance department, as well as giving others the opportunity to do so. From the construction of the university’s own campus building to the purchase of vehicles, maintenance and fuel; security guards and cleaning services, cafeteria rent, decoration of various offices, purchase of furniture, purchase of various laboratory equipment, and evading government taxes and VAT, Iffat Jahan’s syndicate has embezzled this money through various frauds. As a result, the university, which was almost fund-free, has now become a bottomless basket. The university’s normal operations are being disrupted by the pressure of huge debt. On the one hand, teachers and employees are at risk of losing their jobs due to the financial crisis, while on the other hand, students are also in danger of stopping their education programs.
Sources say that Iffat Jahan, a close friend of Sheikh Rehana, the younger sister of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the fallen Awami League government, won the treasurer post of Prime Asia University by exerting influence. She is also the wife of Awami League leader Babul Mollah, cousin of Tofail Ahmed, one of the partners in all the misdeeds of the Awami League government, and the sister-in-law of the notorious Abdul Quddus Makhon. Despite not having the necessary qualifications and skills, she occupied this important post of treasurer until now by using these identities. Even though the dictatorial government has fallen, Iffat is now making various attempts to take over the entire university from her position by the power of an invisible pillar.
Sheikh Rehana’s blessings have repeatedly informed the government agencies including UGC, Ministry of Education and ACC about the history of all the corruption of Iffat Jahan, but since she is an Awami follower and a friend of Sheikh Rehana, she has always remained hidden from the spotlight. Those concerned say that Prime Asia University is now in existential crisis due to Iffat Jahan’s terrible grip.
It has been alleged that she has taken over the university by using the leaders of various responsibilities of Prime Asia’s Chhatra League and some students who support Chhatra League in exchange for immoral benefits. With this force, she forced the Pro-VC and VC (RD) to resign on December 20. On January 5, she forcibly expelled 7 officials holding important responsibilities in various departments from the university by giving them various tags and inhumanely and illegally. Taking this opportunity, Treasurer Iffat Jahan has already destroyed all the documentary evidence of her corruption and misdeeds. She is engaged in a conspiracy to embarrass the interim government. In continuation of this, on January 8, under his patronage, various leaders of the Prime Asia Chhatra League and Chhatra League supporters led some students to break Section 144 in front of the secretariat and create an unstable situation. At the same time, they are continuing various propaganda against the government. Parents concerned about the future of the students have already filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to save the university from the hands of the Iffat Jahan Syndicate and bring these corrupt and looters under the law. An internal audit report of Prime Asia University also revealed the picture of this massive looting and irregularities.
Citing the special audit report of the university’s admission investigation committee, internal audit and financial audit institution, the complaint submitted to the ACC states that according to Section 33 of the Private Universities Act 2010; the Treasurer shall maintain the overall supervision of the university’s funds and accounts of income and expenditure and shall be responsible for the preparation of the university’s annual budget, financial management and discipline and accounting. But Treasurer Dr. Iffat Jahan has ignored this law and refrained from preparing the university’s annual budget, embezzled money at will and also gave opportunities to his associates.
There has also been a pond theft regarding the construction of the university’s permanent campus. Treasurer Iffat Jahan illegally awarded the work of 8 crore 68 lakh taka to a fraudulent company named Inficom SA Construction Bangladesh for the construction of the university’s permanent campus building without any tender. He abused his power without taking any approval from the Board of Trustees and illegally awarded the contract to the company for this work by passing a note. Although 26.5 crore taka has been paid through cheques for the construction of the building so far, the work has progressed only 38.92 percent. They have billed about 4300 taka per square foot for the construction. The amount that the university has already paid to Inficom is not in line with the progress of the work. Iffat Jahan has released the money by approving the bill vouchers for all the additional expenses of this work.
According to the university’s internal audit report, Iffat Jahan has never come to the office on time since joining as treasurer. Taking unauthorized leave is his natural habit. When the Board of Trustees (BOT) asked him about this verbally, his only answer was, ‘I have to go to the Awami League office regularly, so it is not possible for me to work regularly or come to the office regularly.’ To investigate such irregularities, the internal department of PrimeAsia prepared an audit report for two months of his working life. In the report, his unauthorized leave and late arrival to the office were observed.
Those concerned say that his activities have disrupted the normal functioning of the university. The university’s internal audit report further states,
Iffat Jahan’s subordinate Finance Director Shipper Ahmed received a total of 71 lakh 49 thousand taka in cash through slips from Admissions at different times, which is clear from the report of the investigation committee formed by the university’s proctor team members, faculty members and registrar and the university’s internal report. In this regard, Iffat Jahan silently assisted Shipper Ahmed in this work. Not only that, she also gave Shipper Ahmed a loan of 7 lakh taka against his salary without paying any attention to any HR policy.
Treasurer Iffat Jahan committed massive corruption in the name of security guard service and cleaning service at PrimeAsia University. The two companies that got this work were the own companies of the then Vice Chairman Raihan Azad Titu. Without paying any attention to any tender, the treasurer illegally paid about 12 lakh taka to the companies in order to embezzle money. A large part of which was shared by treasurer Iffat Jahan and vice chairman Titu. Based on the actual calculations, it is seen that there is no scope for spending more than 5 lakh taka per month on security guard service and cleaning service. In this way, by showing additional expenses on security guard service and cleaning service, he managed to earn about 84 lakh taka illegally per year.
The report also revealed that Iffat Jahan rented a cafeteria under the HBR Tower of PrimeAsia University without taking the prior permission of the owner of the building. When the matter came to the attention of the building owner, he wrote letters repeatedly requesting not to rent such a cafeteria illegally without his permission. Although the rent of the place where the treasurer rented the cafeteria was estimated to be several lakh taka, he paid only 10 thousand taka. On going to the spot, it was found that he actually rented it to a total of 4 shops in that place. Ifafat Jahan earned several lakhs of taka per month from 4 shops through fraud. The owners of these shops are the wife and brother-in-law of Vice Chairman Raihan Azad Titu. Not only that, the electricity and water bills of these 4 shops were being paid by the university without the tenants paying them. According to the university’s accounts department, the university has so far paid about 5 crore taka for utility bills. In the greed of earning several lakhs of taka per month, the treasurer, in collusion with Raihan Azad Titu, imposed this huge amount of money on the shoulders of the university.
The report also revealed that PrimeAsia University provides bags as a gift to every student during admission. Treasurer Iffat Jahan discovered a new way to steal money in this sector. According to the university’s internal audit report, the treasurer issued work orders to purchase 1000 pieces of student bags and paid an advance of about 5 lakh taka at different times. But in reality, no bag was deposited in the university store. In this way, he embezzled the entire amount of money for the purchase of student bags.
In addition, according to Section 45(2) of the Private Universities Act 2010, although the treasurer was supposed to submit an audited financial statement to the UGC every year, he refrained from submitting it in 2018 – 2019, 2019 – 2020, 2020 – 2021, 2021 – 2022, 2022 – 2023, 2023 – 2024 respectively, which is a clear violation of the Private Universities Act 2010. Treasurer Iffat Jahan resorted to fraud in the purchase of the university VC’s car. The university purchased a car (Nissan X-Trial) from Adyan Traders, but the real owner of the car was shown to be Nusrat Trading. PrimeAsia University paid 18 lakh taka to Nusrat Trading for the purchase of the car. Later, PrimeAsia University paid 45 lakh taka to Adyan Traders for the additional cost. That is, Iffat Jahan illegally embezzled the additional cost of 12 lakh taka for the purchase of the car. Due to Iffat Jahan’s loot, about 5 crore taka is outstanding for rent of two buildings of the university’s temporary campus. The salaries of general teachers, officers/employees were stopped for four months. According to the Private Universities Act 2010, Treasurer Iffat Jahan is fully responsible for all these works.
The internal audit report says that as treasurer, Iffat Jahan’s major responsibility was to submit income tax returns, but she embezzled crores of taka by not submitting income tax returns from 2017 to 2018 and from 2020 to 2024. Along with this, she embezzled about 9.88 crore taka by not paying the government’s tax and VAT. She embezzled about 35 lakh taka at different times by showing the signatures of the members of the purchase committee. But in reality, no minutes of the purchase committee meetings were found on those dates. According to the Private Universities Act 2010, every private university is obliged to pay the UGC’s monitoring fee. But treasurer Iffat Jahan, ignoring the said law, has been embezzling money through fraud by refraining from paying the monitoring fee from the last 2020-2021 to 2023-2024 financial year.
The most surprising thing is that after being appointed as Treasurer, he refrained from paying the UGC monitoring fee from the financial years 2020-2021 to 2023-2024, (b) failed to submit income tax returns from 2017 to 2018 and 2020 to 2024, (c) refrained from submitting annual audited financial statements to the UGC from 2018 to 2019, 2019 to 2020, 2020 to 2021, 2021 to 2022, 2022 to 2023, 2023 to 2024. Although each of the above actions is a clear violation of Section 33(3) and 45(2) of the Private Universities Act 2010, the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Ministry of Education have not taken any legal action against him till date.
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