Seventeen files, mostly related to purchase by different public medical colleges, have gone missing from the Medical Education and Family Welfare Division of the health ministry at the secretariat, officials said on Saturday.
Medical education division deputy secretary Nadira Haydar filed a general diary in this regard with the Shahbagh police station Thursday evening, said Shahbagh police inspector, operations Sheikh Md Kamruzzaman.
Files on purchase by Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Medical College, Rajshahi Medical College and other medical colleges, vehicle allocation and purchase for training schools, and the population-based cervical and breast cancer screening programme, including electronic data tracking, were among the files that went missing on Wednesday, according to the general diary.
Files relating to several projects of the nursing and midwifery directorate and the health education bureau also went missing
The division also formed a three-member committee headed by admin wing additional secretary Md Shah Alam, asking it to submit its report in a week, said health ministry officials.
The incident of missing of the files occurred at a time when various irregularities in health ministry projects and Covid-related purchase have come to light since the coronavirus outbreak in the country in March 2020.
Shahbagh police inspector Kamruzzaman said that they had launched an investigation into the missing of the files and would visit the health education division today.
A crime scene unit lead by Criminal Investigation Department special superintendent Md Kamruzzaman visited the secretariat on Friday and spoke to the division officers and employees concerned.
The files went missing from the room attached to the room of division’s development wing additional secretary Shahadat Hossain in building no 3 at the secretariat.
The attached room is used by stenographers-cum-computer operators Md Joseph Sardar and Ayesha Siddiqua.
Shahadat said that the files related to purchase orders of different institutions, including Rajshahi Medical College, were stored in a file cabinet under the supervision of Joseph and Ayesha.
‘There are two CCTV cameras installed around the room and we found nothing in one camera and another camera has been inoperative for over a month and half,’ he told New Age on Saturday.
Shahadat said that this was the second such incident as another purchase-related file of Rajshahi Medical College went missing a few weeks ago.
‘We have asked all officials and employees to appear at the ministry Sunday morning as the police and other units will inspect the office area,’ he said.
The general diary filed by the division stated that at the end of the office hours on October 27, the files were placed in the cabinet and both Joseph and Ayesha left the office at about 5:00pm.
At 12:00 noon on October 28, it was noticed that the files went missing, according to the diary.
