Missing Hajj documents found

Govt yet to act against errant officials

The Religious Affairs Ministry has recovered the missing file containing financial and other documents of sending 5,000 additional pilgrims to Hajj last year under special allotment of the Saudi Government following the request of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Although the file was recovered from the officials concerned, including former Secretary, Chowdhury Babul Hassan, the ministry has not yet initiated any action against those involved in hiding the file. A decision is likely to be taken by next week.
At the same time, the ministry has not yet taken any steps to recover the money deposited with the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) by the government as pilgrims’ expenditure. It has also not taken steps to recover the extra fund saved after maintaining the expenditure. Ministry’s acting-Secretary Md Abdul Jalil told The Independent that the file has already been recovered but has not been examined yet, as officials of the ministry and Hajj office are busy with the Hajj pre-registration process. “The file will be opened and a decision on the ministry’s next course of action will be taken by next week,” he added. He said the ministry is taking the missing file incident seriously.
However, HAAB General Secretary, Shaikh Md Abdullah, told this Correspondent that they have refunded the amount borrowed from the government. An official statement has been submitted to the ministry after getting a notice from the ministry in this regard. He said the apex body of Hajj agencies has already refunded the extra money to the pilgrims that have communicated with them. The rest of the available fund will be refunded to the pilgrims directly and not to the agencies.
According to ministry officials, the file contained documents of 5,000 extra pilgrims that the Saudi Government had allowed last year. Though Saudi authorities allotted the extra quota under government management, responding to the Prime Minister’s request, the government distributed it among the private Hajj agencies, as it was hard for them to manage 5,000 pilgrims at that stage. The ministry had formed a 10-member committee for selecting pilgrims and examining their documents and passports.

Missing Hajj documents found

Govt yet to act against errant officials

The Religious Affairs Ministry has recovered the missing file containing financial and other documents of sending 5,000 additional pilgrims to Hajj last year under special allotment of the Saudi Government following the request of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Although the file was recovered from the officials concerned, including former Secretary, Chowdhury Babul Hassan, the ministry has not yet initiated any action against those involved in hiding the file. A decision is likely to be taken by next week. At the same time, the ministry has not yet taken any steps to recover the money deposited with the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) by the government as pilgrims expenditure. It has also not taken steps to recover the extra fund saved after maintaining the expenditure. Ministrys acting-Secretary Md Abdul Jalil told The Independent that the file has already been recovered but has not been examined yet, as officials of the ministry and Hajj office are busy with the Hajj pre-registration process. The file will be opened and a decision on the ministrys next course of action will be taken by next week, he added. He said the ministry is taking the missing file incident seriously. However, HAAB General Secretary, Shaikh Md Abdullah, told this Correspondent that they have refunded the amount borrowed from the government. An official statement has been submitted to the ministry after getting a notice from the ministry in this regard. He said the apex body of Hajj agencies has already refunded the extra money to the pilgrims that have communicated with them. The rest of the available fund will be refunded to the pilgrims directly and not to the agencies. According to ministry officials, the file contained documents of 5,000 extra pilgrims that the Saudi Government had allowed last year. Though Saudi authorities allotted the extra quota under government management, responding to the Prime Ministers request, the government distributed it among the private Hajj agencies, as it was hard for them to manage 5,000 pilgrims at that stage. The ministry had formed a 10-member committee for selecting pilgrims and examining their documents and passports.