Khulna Agricultural University
Ministry directs to scrap recruitments of VC's family members
There was an allegation that the vice-chancellor (VC) of Khulna Agricultural University, Shahidur Rahman Khan, recruited nine of his family members, including his son and daughter, to the university through illegitimate way.
Besides, the vice-chancellor, whose tenure will expire on 11 September, allegedly tried to recruit his wife as professor directly to the university.
These allegations were proved to be true in an investigation the University Grants Commission (UGC) conducted.
Following this investigation, the education ministry in a letter, signed by deputy secretary of secondary and higher education division Md Mahmudul Alam, recently asked the VC to cancel these recruitments.
At the same time, the ministry has directed to cancel the recruitment of 73 teachers in 20 departments as those were made at the recommendation of a board lacking 'subject experts'.
Khulna Agricultural University registrar Khandaker Mazharul Anwar confirmed to Prothom Alo that he has received the letter.
Khulna Agricultural University Act was passed in parliament in 2015. The university started its operation from September, 2018 through recruiting Shahidur Rahman as the vice chancellor.
But since the beginning, allegations of massive irregularities in different sectors of the university were brought up against the VC.
Five syndicate members of the university sent a letter to the education ministry in 2020 mentioning the specific allegations of irregularities carried out by the VC.
Following that the UGC formed a committee at the directive of the ministry to investigate the matter. The investigation report was submitted in January this year.
The investigation found that the VC recruited his son Shafiur Rahman Khan and his brother-in-law as section officers of the university. Four of his nephews were also recruited in different posts.
They are -- Murad Billah as accounting officer, Sultan Mahmud as administrative officer, Imran Hossain as lab technician and Mizanur Rahman as assistant cum computer operator.
Apart from this, Saifulla Haque, the son of sister-in-law of the VC, was recruited as an assistant engineer (power) while Nizamuddin, another relative of the VC, as the data entry operator.
The report termed the process of recruiting the VC's daughter Israt Khan in the Computer Science and Engineering department as a lecturer faulty.
The report also said Israt Khan applied for a lecturer post on 13 April in 2020, securing 3.30 CGPA in bachelor. Thirty more candidates applied for the post with higher CGPA than that of Israt.
The VC tried to recruit his wife, Ferdousi Begum – who is working as upazila livestock officer – as professor directly to the university. She applied for the professor post in microbiology and public health department of Khulna Agricultural University on 13 April in 2020.
However, the recruitment process was postponed by the education ministry. According to the probe committee, the VC didn't even meet the conditions of the recruitment.
According to the probe committee, they asked the VC Shahidur Rahman over the recruitments. Admitting the allegations, he told the committee that he did these wrong to run a new university.
Suggested measures of ministry
The letter said the VC admitted the matter of irregularities to the probe body.
Therefore, he will have to take step to cancel the recruitments of nine of his family members. Besides, the application of Ferdousi Begum and the recruitment of 73 teachers in 20 departments will have to be scrapped.
The letter added that the policy of Khulna Agricultural University will have to be updated in line with that of Bangladesh Agricultural University. The university will have to refrain from irregularities in the coming days, including recruitment through nepotism and without subject experts.