Teachers’ syndicate at Feni Govt college

Feni Correspondent :

A powerful syndicate was formed in Feni Government College during the fascist era, consisting of some teachers.

They controlled the entire college by cooperating with the principal who was working in the last fifteen years in all his misdeeds.

From information received from reliable sources, it is known that the principals working during the fascist regime during the last fifteen years resorted to extreme irregularities and unlimited corruption in spending money from various private funds collected from the students of the college.

In this work, some dishonest teachers working in the college provided their full cooperation.

In return, they received huge illegal and immoral financial benefits from the principals.

In order to keep the trend of embezzlement and financial irregularities in check and unhindered, the practice of giving various illegal gifts and gratuities to the teachers and staff of the college from various funds of the college is also introduced to keep all the teachers and staff happy.

For example, on the 1st of Baishakh, the Bengali New Year, a system of distributing expensive Punjabis to all male teachers, Baisakhi sarees to female teachers, shirts, fatwas to the employees, etc. is introduced.

A lot of money is spent from the college fund in this sector. A strange tradition of giving umbrellas to teachers and staff at the beginning of the monsoon is also introduced in this college.

Every year, a system of providing a large subsidy from the college fund is kept for organizing annual fun trips with the teachers’ families, which is completely immoral and illegal.

There is no such precedent in any other government college in the country. The entire cost of the teachers’ annual fun trips is covered from the personal contributions paid by the teachers and the funds of the Teachers’ Council.

But the college has an unusual custom of distributing the money collected by the teachers’ council among the teachers at the end of the year through attractive gift vouchers.

As per the government’s instructions, the college has also introduced a rule of giving generous honorariums to teachers involved in organizing various national day celebrations and teachers responsible for conducting co-curricular activities.

However, it is completely against the rules to take any kind of honorarium for performing any duty other than performing examination-related duties.

In organizing various events and implementing various co-curricular activities, it is seen that as a result of giving generous honorariums to the college principal, vice-principal and teachers of the concerned committees, the expenses are shown to be at least four to five times higher than the actual expenses through fake bill vouchers.

These financial irregularities and mismanagement had become the norm in Feni College for a long time.

But after the July Revolution last year, these irregularities, mismanagement and financial immoral activities that had been going on for a long time began to end after the joining of the current principal, Professor Md. Enamul Haque Khandaker.

The current principal has completely stopped all illegal and immoral financial benefits that were prevalent in the college.

He has declared zero tolerance against all types of corruption and financial waste and has taken various positive steps to improve the quality of the students’ education by regularly monitoring class activities and ensuring that all the staff working in the college practice discipline and discipline as per the government service rules.

And then, during the tenure of the previous principals, the illegal income of some dishonest teachers who were illegal and immoral beneficiaries and who prepared fake bill vouchers for the principals became deeply resentful.

Therefore, they have taken to the field with their backs against the current principal.

They are violating the government service rules and are trying to harass and embarrass the current principal by meeting in secret meetings inside and outside the college at various times and consulting among themselves.

In order to mentally embarrass and upset the current principal in order to achieve their goal, they sometimes make sarcastic and ugly comments behind his back.

One of the strategies of this opportunistic group is to get fake news published in local newspapers with false information against any principal in order to keep them under their control.

In the same vein, completely false and fabricated fake news is also published against the current principal once or twice.

Despite this, they become extremely upset as all attempts to manage the current principal like the previous principals failed.

During the tenure of previous principals, they were not only silent, but also complicit in the rampant financial waste, irregularities, and corruption that occurred in various sectors.

but The amount of financial waste and corruption that has taken place during the time of the past principals will be easy for readers to get an idea from some information and examples obtained from reliable sources. Here are just a few examples.

During the time of the past principals, in collusion with the aforementioned dishonest benefit-seeking teachers, a lot of money has been embezzled through fake bill vouchers by showing many times the actual cost of celebrating various national days directed by the government.

For example, after the current principal joined, the cost of celebrating the International Mother Language Day 2025 on February 21st was only 48154/-.

However, to complete the said event in the previous year, i.e. Mother Language Day ‘2024, 220304/- (two lakh twenty thousand three hundred and four taka only), which is undoubtedly several times more than the actual cost.

The extra money has been pocketed through fake bill vouchers. The current principal spent 41820/- and 48154/- on the celebration of Feni Liberation Day on December 6 and Intellectuals’ Day on December 14, 2024, respectively.

The previous year, the then principal spent 125811/- and 114855/- on organizing these two events.

The current principal spent 97491/- on the celebration of Maha Vijay Diwas 2024, and the previous year, i.e. Vijay Diwas ‘2023, the expenditure shown is 284091/- (two lakh eighty four thousand ninety one taka only).

Which is much more than the actual expenditure. Although there was no instruction to organize a separate program in any college in the country on the day of the Padma Bridge inauguration in 2022, the then principal, vice-principal and some of the mentioned teachers pocketed the entire amount by showing a fake bill voucher showing the cost of 323440/- (three lakh twenty-three thousand four hundred and forty taka only) on the occasion of the Padma Bridge inauguration at Feni College.

It is to be noted that on the day of the Padma Bridge inauguration, the government instruction was that every educational institution would make arrangements to broadcast the inauguration program to the students through a projector.

There was no scope for spending a single taka on this. In order to complete the college’s annual literary and cultural competition program, the year before the current principal joined and the year before that, i.e. the last 2023-24 financial year and the 2022-23 financial year, 884020/- and 690983/- were spent respectively in the two years before the current principal joined and the year before that, i.e. the last 2023-24 financial year and the 2023-23 financial year, and the cost of organizing the program during the current principal’s time, i.e. the 2024-25 financial year, 439000/- was spent, which is less than half of the cost of the previous year.

Last year, in the year 1431, around nine lakh taka was spent from the two funds of the college to celebrate the Pahela Baishakh Bangla New Year.

This year, during the current principal’s term, only 138,000/- (one lakh thirty-eight thousand taka) was spent to complete the event.

Unlimited corruption has been resorted to in the purchase of official materials and stationery of Feni College such as paper, pens, file papers, stapler machines, alpins and computer toners etc.

Every year, fake bill vouchers worth lakhs of taka have been made from the college fund in the name of purchasing these materials.

However, the necessary government allocation is provided from the revenue sector twice in every fiscal year for the purchase of these official materials.

Even after purchasing the necessary office materials from that allocation, there should be some surplus.

In that case, Feni College has exhausted the allocation received from the revenue sector and has also made unusual bill vouchers from the college fund for these purchases.

If we give two examples, the matter will be clear. For example, in the year before the current principal joined, i.e. in the fiscal year 2023-24, 965815/- was spent on purchasing computer toner or ink.

In the previous year, in the fiscal year 2022-23, 1301588/- was spent on purchasing the said toner. In the previous fiscal year 2021-22, 1360567/- was spent in this sector.

Again, the government allocation received in this sector, about eight and a half lakh to nine and a half lakh taka, has also been exhausted by showing the expenditure in that sector.

It is natural for everyone concerned to have an idea of how much stationery is required in a government office and how much maximum money can be spent on purchasing these items.

After the current principal joined, only 15000/- taka was spent from the college fund on purchasing computer toner in the fiscal year 2024-25.

Thus, through fake bill vouchers, a total of 9947822/- (Ninety-nine lakh forty-seven thousand eight hundred and twenty-two taka only) has been spent from the three important private funds of the college in the fiscal year 2021-22. 13752042/- (One crore thirty-seven lakh fifty-two thousand forty-two taka only) has been spent in the fiscal year 2022-23. 13195122/- (One crore thirty-one lakh ninety-five thousand one hundred and twenty-two taka only) has been spent in the fiscal year 2023-24.

After the current principal joined, 3196811/- (Thirty-one lakh ninety-six thousand eight hundred and eleven taka only) has been spent from the said three funds for necessary purchases and work. Each of these expenses is real and visible.

During the monsoon, there is no drainage system in the college campus, so even a little rain floods the entire campus.

However, in the last fiscal year 2023-24, the cost of repairing the water sewerage line and repairing the drain was shown at 1183433/- (11 lakh eighty-three thousand four hundred thirty-three taka only).

However, this reporter went to the college on the spot and could not find any drain.

There is a record that about thirty-nine lakh taka has been spent in the past in the name of repairing the college grounds.

The impartial teachers, students and employees of the college are aware of what percentage of that money has actually been spent.

Although not a single taka has been spent by the current principal in the name of repairing the college grounds, some teachers have published a false report in a local newspaper against him to embarrass the principal, stating that money was spent in the name of repairing the grounds.

In the fiscal year 2022-23, 460450 taka was spent only on making badges and ID cards.

The total expenditure in this sector per student in a fiscal year is one lakh to one and a half lakh taka. During the Corona period, in the fiscal year 2021-22, 2124766 taka was spent on the renovation of ten classrooms of the college, which was completely unrealistic.

This college has created a precedent of not only withdrawing money through fake bill vouchers without doing any work, but also spending money without holding any event. In 2022, the cost of the exchange meeting with the Director General was shown as 292600/-.

When this reporter asked some teachers who were working at that time about this, they expressed surprise and said that no such exchange meeting was held in the college.

In 2019, about 1259000/- was spent on the renovation of the office room and purchase of furniture of Feni Government College Students’ Union (FECSU) and about 1100000/- was spent on organizing Pramod Bihar in Cox’s Bazar and St. Martin’s.

When this reporter asked the former principal of the college, Professor Bimal Kanti Pal, about the allegations of financial irregularities during his time, he did not agree to comment on the matter as he had already retired from service. When contacted by telephone, the other principal, Professor Mohammad Moktar Hossain, also did not agree to comment.