Univ teachers indulge in corruption: Muhith [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Univ teachers indulge in corruption: Muhith

Local September 09, 2015

Finance minister AMA Muhith on Tuesday said teachers of public universities were indulging in practice of corruptions which should be stopped.
His comments were, however, rejected by the teachers who said practice of corruption had been highest in the
ministry run by the finance minister himself.
Muhith made the comments while talking to reporters at his secretariat office on the day when the public universities teachers demanding review of the pay hike enforced a strike across the country.
The new pay hike increasing salary of the public servants by 85 per cent on average was approved by the cabinet on Monday.
Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers Association general secretary Maksud Kamal told New Age on Tuesday that it was unfortunate to hear sermon on honesty from Muhith.
He said everybody was well aware about corruption in the ministry run by Muhith.
Referring to a series of scandals from Hallmark to BASIC Bank scam in the last several years, Maksud said the observation by the finance minister was not acceptable.
He said announcement by the government to review the teachers’ demands justified that there were discrepancies in the new pay scale.
The teachers are scheduled to hold a meeting with editors of the newspaper on Thursday and organise a protest rally at Dhaka University on September 13 to strengthen the movement.
Earlier, Muhith said he found no justification for movement by the teachers saying they (the teachers) were ignorant about the facilities given in the new pay scale.
‘The educated class of society was doing movement for lack of knowledge,’ he said.
He noted that rule for promotion made by the university authorities at their will had been abused widely.
He said the system of promotion should be reformed at the public universities to stop corruption by the teachers.
Maksud Kamal said they welcomed reform to the promotion rule in the public universities.
There are about 15,000 teachers at 37 public universities.
It is reported that like other sectors in the country corruption at public universities was on the rise. Nepotism and partisan politics play a big role in appointment of teachers and employees.
Many teachers are allegedly found taking class in four to five private universities without informing the authorities. They also do consultancy in non-government offices without prior approval.
Allegations are there that vice-chancellors and influential teachers get kickbacks from contractors of development works in the universities.
Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers Association president Farid Uddin Ahmed said allegations of corruption brought by Muhith would not intimidate their movement.
He said they wanted an end to discrepancy in the new pay scale by keeping senior professors and senior secretaries on the same pay scale and equal benefits.
Cabinet secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the cabinet had asked the cabinet committee to address disparities in the government salary structure and look into the demands of the public university teachers.