No more gold crests to foreign friends

Following fierce criticism of adulteration of gold in the crests given to foreign friends in recognition of their contribution to Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971, the government has decided not to present the friends with crests made of the precious bright yellow metal. At least two officials, however, said that the entire fate of the government’s initiative to honour foreign friends or institutions for their contribution to the nation’s independence was uncertain although 224 persons or institutions out of the 562 primarily selected foreign friends were yet to be given such awards. Liberation war affairs ministry insiders said holding of such events in future was unlikely considering that physical condition and age of many personalities in the list would hardly allow them to travel to Bangladesh while and many of them were traceless due to change in their addresses. ‘After the adulteration in the gold of the crests and taking into consideration the health of many elderly foreign friends, there are little chances of holding such reception in Dhaka in the near future,’ said a top official of the ministry. In seven phases between 2011 and October 2013, Bangladesh honoured 338 personalities and institutions out of the primarily selected 562 from 30 countries for the contribution they had made to our liberation war.

Bangladesh Freedom Honour, the highest award, was conferred only on former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, Bangladesh Liberation War Honour was conferred on 15 foreign heads of state and Bangladesh Friends of Liberation War Honour was conferred on 322 personalities and institutions. Liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque, however, on Saturday said that the government could not hold the reception since October 2013 due to unavoidable circumstances. ‘We are weighing the idea of holding a reception to foreign friends in March 2015.’ ‘In the case of such reception to be held in future, the government will not present any crests made of gold [to foreign friends],’ he said. The government was hugely embarrassed after the media reported in April this year that gold and silver in the crests presented to the foreign friends were adulterated. The Incident tarnished the image of the country and caused a loss of Tk 7.04 crore to the exchequer. Each of the crests was supposed to have one bhari (11.66 grams) of gold and 30 bhari of silver. But the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution found only about three ‘anas’ of gold and three bharis of brass-copper-zinc alloy in one of the crests. A three-member inquiry committee of the public administration ministry, led by commerce secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamun, has been investigating the gold crest scam since last August. A parliamentary committee is also probing the scam. Earlier, a committee submitted its report to the liberation war affairs ministry on May 9 stating that it had found involvement of the then state minister of liberation war affairs, AB Tajul Islam, and 12 officials of the ministry in the adulteration of gold in the crests. The Anti-Corruption Commission is also investigating a corruption allegation referred by the ministry against two suppliers of the crests – Amecon’s owner Mir Daud Ahmed and M/S Mohasinul Hasan’s owner M Mohsinul Hasan who happens to be a nephew of Tajul. The liberation war affairs minister, AKM Mozammel Huq, said that he wanted punishment for all who were involved in the scam.

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