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Money skimmers take DFP for a ride

Outsiders make documentary to siphon off fund

Star Report
The Ministry of Information has its eyes wide shut to the overwhelming presence of evidences of involvement of some outsiders in the production of a documentary for the Department of Films and Publications (DFP) to skim money.
Evidences proved that a group of influential outsiders led by one of the three assistant press secretaries (APS) to the prime minister made the documentary and siphoned off most of the Tk 8 lakh allocation by the information
ministry for the venture.
The 30-minute documentary, one in Bangla and another with English sub-title, carries propaganda against the Awami League-sponsored convention on human rights and 'repression' on the Hindu community immediately after the last general election. Copies of it were distributed among Bangladesh embassies abroad and foreign missions in Dhaka.
The Daily Star obtained a copy of the CD styled 'Glimpses of
Truth', which clearly showed that it was not made by the DFP, but by a group of outsiders.
Officials said it is mandatory to use names of the DFP, Ministry of Information and the monogram of the Bangladesh government in the credit line of any government film or documentary. But neither the name of the DFP nor any private organisation was stated in the documentary.
The credit line of every documentary that the DFP produces should read: "Presented by the Department of Films and Publications (DFP), Ministry of Information, People's Republic of Bangladesh (along with the official monogram)."
But this particular documentary skipped those words.
Evidence and investigation revealed the APS, who rather prefers to introduce himself as a spokesman of Hawa Bhaban (popularly known as unofficial secretariat of the ruling BNP), a political appointee DPS (deputy press secretary) to the PM and several outsiders were directly involved in the production of the CD.
After the publication of a report in The Daily Star on April 15 under the headline 'PMO staff mint money from puffed up photo, documentary budget', the information ministry sharply reacted
and issued a rejoinder on the same day terming it 'unfounded, factually incorrect and fabricated'.
The information ministry claimed no APS of the Prime Minister's Press Wing was involved in the making of the documentary. Since the DFP is the sole authority to make documentary films on behalf of the government, there is no scope at all for outsiders to get directly involved in the film making process, read the ministry rejoinder.
Following the rejoinder, The Daily Star investigated further and found out that the documentary was completely made outside the DFP and by powerful outsiders.
Sources at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the DFP explicitly said that none from the DFP was involved in the CD production.
They said the DFP has no technological capabilities to make a video CD because it only works on celluloid film. The DFP has a video wing introduced during the Awami League regime, but it is not working because many of its equipment are out of order and obsolete.
Names of some DFP officials were however used in the CD in an apparent attempt to avoid legal consequences. Talking to The Daily Star, a number of senior DFP officials denied their involvement in the production of the documentary.
Many officials felt government rules and procedures were violated in this case.
After publication of The Daily Star report, the DFP changed some vital papers and documents at the instruction of the higher authorities to guard against future complexity, sources disclosed. But it could not change or insert anything to the title or the credit line as copies of it have already been distributed.
Following is the credit line mentioned in the CD: Supervision-Maruf Kamal Sohel, a political appointee DPS of the PM's Press Wing; Information and Research Ashiuzzaman, executive editor of Envoy; Nurul Azam Paban of BTV; Anwarul Islam of Dainik Ittefaq; Mehadi Hasan of Daily Inqilab; Farid Alam of Ajker Kagoj (now in NTV) and Parag Arman of Dainik Dinkal. Interviews by Mehadi Hasan Palash. Producer- Sardar Amin, Management- Shamim Hasan with the co-operation of Syed Mahbubur Rahman, director general (DG) of DFP, and ABM Salahuddin, director of DFP.
Sardar Amin is learnt to be a DFP official, but his designation and official identity was not used in the credit line.
A reporter of the now defunct ETV was also involved in the production process, but his name was dropped when he quit following disagreement with the APS.
To justify additional payment, names of two persons were shown in the credit line in four different ways. Anwar Al Din and Anwarul Islam is one person who works in the Bengali daily Ittefaq. Same goes with Mehadi Hasan and Mehadi Hasan Palash of Inqilab.
In the video CD, it is clearly written that Ashik Islam and Anwar Al Din have made the documentary. Touhidul Islam alias Ashik Islam is the said APS while Anwar Al Din is a staff reporter of Ittefaq.
Both of them are members of the Film Censor Board. Known as stalwarts of Hawa Bhaban, the two are also associated with the FDC (Film Development Corporation), BTV and DFP.
The APS had no proven expertise in film related jobs; still he was sent to Switzerland in October last year as a 'technical expert' to supervise cleaning of around 20 films that contains pictures of official activities of late President
Ziaur Rahman.
His trip to Switzerland reportedly came as a favour returned by the JW Worldwide, a business firm that clinched a bid worth Tk 86 lakh for cleaning those films. A midranking former Workers Party leader-turned-businessman was instrumental in getting the job for JW Worldwide, thanks to his strong connection with the Hawa Bhaban and the APS, sources said.
DFP officials said the filmcleaning task could easily have been done in neighbouring India, Thailand and Singapore. But as the cleaning was done in Switzerland for unknown reason the project cost shot up, incurring huge loss to the national exchequer.
Similar project was carried out to clean old films on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during the Awami League period. It was done in Madras (now Chennai) with considerably low price and the quality of the job was the same as in Switzerland.
The JW Worldwide meanwhile failed to get a contract of Tk 85 crore recently to replace equipment of BTV relay stations across the country when the cabinet purchase committee rejected it.