The investigation into the making and purchase of substandard shields given to foreign friends and organisations for their contribution to the Liberation War is yet to be completed though the deadline for the report submission expires today.

The liberation war affair ministry formed the hree-member committee on April 7 and asked it to submit a report within 15 working days from April 10.

Talking to The Daily Star, Dhaka Divisional Commissioner Zillar Rahman, the probe committee chief, said the investigators were at the final stage of the probe and that they required a couple of days more to submit the report.

"We are talking to all people concerned, including the previous state minister of the liberation war affairs ministry, government officials and Amecon authority |that supplied the shields], and so we need some time."

Zillar, however, declined to comment about the findings before submitting the report.

The ministry formed the probe committee after Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute (BSTI) had found that every shield had only 2.363 grams of gold and 466.237 grams of brass instead of 22.5 grams of gold and 300 grams of silver.

A sample of the shields was sent to BSTI for test in October 2012.

Recently the investigation committee collected a shield from British citizen Julian Francis, a foreign friend honoured by the government, who is now working in Dhaka, and sent it to Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission. The commission did not find any gold in the shield, according to a report published in a Bangla daily.

Contacted, he said the honour that Bangladesh gave to its foreign friends was unique and it did not matter whether it was a certificate or a shield.

"It is, however, embarrassing for the government, especially for the president and the prime minister, who handed over the crests," Francis told The Daily Star. If somebody made money through corrupt practices, he should be punished under the law of the land.

Amecon that supplied most of the shields was paid the amount fixed as per the design. It got around Tk 2.63 lakh for each shield, ministry sources said.

After coming to office in 2009, the Awami League-led government initiated a move to honour foreign friends and organisations for their valuable contributions to the Liberation War in 1971. The ministry prepared 338 shields, of them 278 were supplied by Amecon and the rest by Ms Moshinul Hasan.