The education boards came up with the project in the wake of increasing forgery of board certificates and mark sheets of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations, sources said.

The current certificate printing technology and paper used lack adequate guard against counterfeits.

The project was taken to introduce a highly technical logo, visible only by a specially focused beam of light, board officials said.

They said the logo was designed in a way that any attempt to remove or otherwise tamper with it would distort the product and the distortion could be detected under the beam.

The boards planned to bankroll the project with their surplus money earned by holding public examinations.

A committee of the project floated an international tender for supply of retro-reflective lamination and automatic laminating machine for making the logos.

State Minister for Education ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon said the job could not be awarded as only one bidder qualified in the tender and it quoted higher price.

"Now, we are examining possibilities of printing the certificates and mark sheets at the government's security printing press," he added.

"If we can, we'll be able to produce anticounterfeit certificates within a short time."

Sources alleged that the specification of 'retro-reflective lamination' in the bid document had created opportunity for a certain company to qualify for the offer.

"The bid matched only with the product of an American company," an industry source said, alleging that some board officials in connivance with officials of that company prepared the bid materials to award them the job.