Nahid terms TIB report baseless

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Thursday termed the report of Transparency International Bangladesh on corruption at private universities as baseless and fabricated.
He asked the TIB to submit evidence in support of their statement. Otherwise, it will have to withdraw its survey report and to seek apology to the nation, Nahid said in the Parliament yesterday.
On June 30, the TIB published report saying that private universities
were involved in illegal transactions of money at different stages–from obtaining approvals for setting up a university to awarding certificates to students.
 “This is a baseless report prepared to tarnish the image of the government,” the education minister said.
They conducted the survey for two years but never even for a single time met the ministry or the University Grants Commission for talks about it, Nahid claimed.
The TIB report titled ‘Private Universities: Challenges of Good Governance and Way Out’ revealed that around Tk one crore to Tk three crore were transacted for getting approval for a private university and Tk 50,000 to Tk two lakh were paid for getting nods for appointing vice chancellors, pro-vice chancellors and treasurers.
Two days after publication of the report, the education ministry trashed it saying that the TIB’s “sweeping” statement on transactions of money for setting up universities and appointing VCs, pro-VCs and treasurers was “false”.
It also claimed that the TIB didn’t even contact any official of the ministry while conducting the study, between June 2012 and May this year.
In reply, the TIB said it had conducted the study to help establish good governance in the sector, not with a view to undermining any individual or institution.
International standards were followed while conducting the study and information was collected from stakeholders, TIB said in a statement.