Bangladesh to order probe into gold crests scam

By Mizan Rahman

Dhaka

The government has decided to probe the reported adulteration in the gold of crests given to ‘foreign friends’ in recognition of their contribution to Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971, over one and half years after the anomaly was detected.

The adulteration in the gold could be detected when the liberation war affairs ministry sent a sample of the crest on October 18, 2012 to the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution for testing, two days before 61 ‘friends of Bangladesh’ were given the crests.

The crests of ‘Friends of Liberation War Honour,’ which were supposed to have 11.66 grams of gold each, are found to have only 2.63 grams of gold.

The BSTI test also confirmed that the crests, which should have been made of 351 grams of silver, had no silver at all. They were made of an alloy of brass, copper and zinc.

Liberation War Affairs Minister Mozammel Huq said on Sunday that the government would set up a committee to investigate the alleged adulteration that the BSTI detected.

“We will set up the committee. We will also look into earlier documents regarding the adulteration,” he said.

Mozammel, who took charge of the ministry in January, said that he had not been aware of the matter.

The ministry paid the manufacturer Taka 263,325 for each of the 324 crests given to foreign friends in the category.

The ministry gave the job of supplying 278 crests to gift item producer Amecon without putting the job out to tender. The ministry could not name the supplier of the remaining 60 crests.

BSTI director general Iqramul Haque said that the test result had been sent to the ministry on October 27, 2012, a week after receiving the sample.

Then state minister for liberation war affairs Tajul Islam said that the ministry official at the time had not informed him of the adulteration in the gold.

“I only concentrated on the Bangladesh freedom honour crest, made of 2.33kg of gold, conferred on the late Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi,” he added.

“We received the confirmation of the list of guests only three days before the award ceremony. And we could not put the manufacturing job out to tender. We issued the work order to Amecon for the manufacturing the crests as it has the expertise,” Tajul said.

After the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution had sent the test report to the ministry, the ministry officials said that they had asked Amecon to explain the alleged adulteration.

The supplier then explained to the ministry that the gold and the silver in the crest had been in keeping with the specification, the ministry officials said.

Discrepancies were also detected in the gold of the Bangladesh Freedom Honour crest that was given to the late Indira Gandhi in a test that the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission did at the request of the ministry.

The Atomic Energy Commission found that the crest, which was supposed to have 2.33kg of gold, had been made of 10.11-karat gold although the government asked the crest be made of 24-karat gold.

Between 2011 and 2013, the government honoured 338 foreign individuals and organisations with awards in three categories — one with the Bangladesh Freedom Honour, 13 with the Bangladesh Liberation War Honour and 324 with the Friends of Liberation War Honour — in seven phases.