Fake notice on Bangladesh office hours shared by Indian media
An Indian media outlet, citing a purported notice from Bangladesh’s Ministry of Public Administration, reported that government offices would adopt a two-day work-from-home policy to address an energy crisis and shift office hours to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to maximize daylight. The report included an image of the notice.
However, Dismislab’s verification found the claim to be false. The image used in the report was generated using artificial intelligence. Md. Mansur Hossain, public relations officer at the Ministry of Public Administration, told Dismislab that the notice is fake.
Indian media outlet The Wall published a report on April 1 titled, “2 days work from home in Bangladesh government offices, office from 8 am to 4 pm to finish work in daylight.” The report stated that, from April 5, government employees in Bangladesh would work from home two days a week, while offices would remain open for the other three days. It said employees would work from home on Wednesday and Thursday, with weekly holidays on Friday and Saturday. It further claimed that the Ministry of Public Administration of the Government of Bangladesh announced the decision in a notice issued on Wednesday night.
The report also featured an image of a notice. The same image was later circulated on social media (1, 2) alongside the claim.
The circulated notice displays details at the top, including the logo of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, along with the names “Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh,” “Ministry of Public Administration,” and “Administration-1 Branch.” Several directives are listed below. At the bottom of the notice, a signature appears under the name Md. Asaduzzaman, identified as a deputy secretary. Beneath the name, a phone number is partially shown as “9540XXX,” along with an email address. A deputy secretary’s seal is also visible beside the signature.
To verify the claim, Dismislab analyzed the image of the notice and identified several inconsistencies. In multiple places, the text appears incoherent, a common characteristic of content generated using artificial intelligence. Additionally, in the fourth directive under the emergency services section, the spelling of “Joruri” (emergency) includes a mix of the letters “Ra” and “Ka.” Such irregularities are typical in AI-generated text.
Additionally, the blue text reading “Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh” within the deputy secretary’s seal and signature section contains visible character inconsistencies. Moreover, the notation “0/10/16” appears below the deputy secretary’s signature, which does not correspond to any meaningful date.
To further verify the claim, Dismislab contacted Md. Mansur Hossain, public relations officer at the Ministry of Public Administration. He said the circulated notice is fake and that no such notice has been issued by the ministry. Highlighting inconsistencies in the document, he added that there is no deputy secretary named Asaduzzaman in the Administration-1 Branch of the ministry. He also noted that the Ministry of Public Administration does not use a circular seal with a water lily symbol. He shared a press release issued by the ministry on the matter with Dismislab.
In a statement, the ministry said the notice circulated in Indian media and on Facebook is fake. “A memorandum dated April 1, 2026, with the number 05.00.0000.110.22.045.26.120 regarding changes to government office schedules and conducting office three days a week to save electricity and energy has circulated on social media. No such letter has been issued by the Ministry of Public Administration. Everyone is requested not to be misled in this regard,” the notice said.
Furthermore, Dismislab reviewed several previously issued press releases (1, 2, 3) from the Ministry of Public Administration and found that official notices typically include a complete phone number at the bottom, which is missing from the circulating document. It also found that the ministry’s official notices do not display a logo at the top, unlike the image used in the false claim.
To determine whether the image was generated using artificial intelligence, it was analyzed with SynthID, an AI identification tool from Google. The tool found that parts of the image were created using a Google AI system and reported a “high” confidence level. To illustrate its findings, SynthID produced a heat map showing highlighted areas. Blue overlays appeared in portions of the left side and the top-right and bottom-right sections of the image, indicating AI-generated elements. Further analysis using Hive Moderation also indicated a high probability that the image was generated using artificial intelligence.
In summary, the notice published in Indian media regarding changes to the operation of government offices in Bangladesh to address the energy crisis is fake.
