Carnival of graft in time of Covid
Widespread scams plague health ministry
Staff Correspondent
Staff Correspondent
Even when the nation was facing a grave situation amid the Covid-19 outbreak, systemic corruption raged in the health ministry.
Instead of putting up all-out efforts to tackle the outbreak and improve crippled public health services, a section of ministry officials has been embroiled in scams since the pandemic hit the country in March last year.
The custodian of the health sector hogged the headlines time and again for all the wrong reasons anomalies in purchasing N95 masks, issuing of fake Covid test certificates, mismanagement in hospitals, amassing huge illegal wealth by a DGHS driver, or scams in recruitment of medical technologists.
a) The accused may tamper with the evidence;
b) The accused may threaten witnesses and thereby subvert the judicial process;
c) The accused may run away and thus escape the reach of the law.
Beyond these reasons there are no legal grounds to deny bail to any citizen of the country. None of the above three conditions apply to Rozina. She will be in jail for three days. And it s all due to postponement of bail hearing. She could have been granted bail yesterday.
The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act no. V of 1898) clearly states in section 497. (1) When any person accused of any non-bailable offence is arrested or detained without warrant… is brought before a court, he may be released on bail but he shall not be so released if there appears to be reasonable grounds for believing that he has been guilty of an offence punishable with death or transportation for life.
Economic Affairs Committee approves proposal on producing Chinese, Russian vaccines
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DHAKA, April 28, 2021 (BSS) – The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today approved a proposal on producing Chinese and Russian vaccines – Sinopharm and Sputnik V- in the country for ensuring Covid-19 vaccine for all.
The approval came from the 14th meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs held virtually with Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal in the chair.
Briefing the reporters virtually after the meeting, Mustafa Kamal said that the approval for producing Chinese and Russian vaccines has been given and at the same time, the government will pursue procuring vaccines from the country’s primary source – Serum Institute.
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Nurse to get first jab as vaccine trial run begins today The New Nation By
Mass inoculations programme of Covid-19 across the country will start on February 7 with seven million vaccine doses in stock.
Besides, vaccination in limited scale among frontline health workers will begin at Kurmitola General Hospital at 3:30pm on Wednesday. About 25 health workers will be inoculated at the very beginning in the hospital.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the programme through video conference from her office.
Health Minister Zahid Maleque announced it on Tuesday after inspecting the preparations of the hospital.
As the first vaccine recipient in Bangladesh, Senior staff nurse of the hospital, Runu Berunika Costa will take the jab. She is In- Charge of the dialysis unit of Kurmitola Hospital.
Bangladesh is no stranger to disaster management. Since independence it has dealt with numerous natural disasters as well as political unrest and overhauls. Despite these past experiences, the Covid-19 pandemic was something that it couldn t have prepared for especially due to its global nature and scope even though it can be argued that having a well-funded and better managed healthcare sector could have made a big difference.
Unfortunately, Bangladesh is no stranger to corruption either, particularly during times of emergencies. In the first week of April, at the height of the pandemic, we saw a social media storm erupting over allegations of substandard masks being supplied to several state-run hospitals instead of N95 masks. Senior health ministry officials were heavily criticised for terming this a mistake without conducting proper investigations. Later on, a probe committee was formed as per the prime minister s order, which found, according to a report submitted by the co