The raw deal that general people of Bangladesh is getting
The foolish people elect Hasina and Khaleda to lead them. Both of them are in jail. But none of their Cabinet Secretaries are in jail yet. They are too big to be put in jail. You know why? Cabinet secretaries are all good people, they had no choice but follow the orders of their bosses. But wait, did any of you ever hear that a cabinet secretary resigned from his post due to a conflict with the prime minister? No! Yet, Prime ministers go to jail, but their cabinet secretaries becomes office bearers of constitutional posts. Bah!
(A personal message to readers. If you are privileged so you can have dinner with any of the Mr. Importants of today's Bangladesh, please make a printout of this article and make them read it over dinner, :) We mean it!)
We have been repeatedly saying that if we are really serious about changing the fate of the people of Bangladesh, if the CTG really mean business, the most effective thing to do is to ensure some honest, effective and competent people gets elected in all the elections - from unions to the post of MPs. Now, how do you ensure that? There will be many opinions - those convoluted opinions might have some credibility, but why go there? Also, if you guys wants to handpick local leaders using intelligence, that will backfire. Why? If you guys had the capacity to understand those, then Ershad would still be in power in Bangladesh. Democracy has to be allowed to grow with the freewill of people.
It is very straight forward. What is expected of the elected posts and from the politicians are extremely demanding jobs and it needs extremely efficient and competent people to deliver. You have create an environment where people in the individual level are motivated to contest in the election. Once you have a good number of interested people, an enabling environment from the government might accelerate the process. But before that, you have start the process by creating incentives for those who are capable. The best way to ensure that is to make what these posts are - make them professional in the sense that they are very highly paid.
The Mayor of Dhaka City should be highest paid job in the city - if we really want this person to perform. Similarly, the Mayors of Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet should be very highly paid jobs. The Mayors of all the municipalities around the country should ensure best paid jobs in the locality. The chairman of the Union Porishod jobs should be full-time jobs and very highly paid. Also, all these positions should entitle them to official residences (a similar practice that we have for President or Prime Minister).
The post of MPs should be very highly paid jobs so that these positions become competitive compared with private sector corporate jobs.
Until these are done, the country's youth will be repeating the mistakes of Abdul Awal Minto or Morshed Khan. They will think first to steal to become filthy rich with some good intention (may be) in the corner of heart that someday they will start giving back to the country. In the meantime, the rich do not leave them and incapacitate the heart to do any good. And alas! they forget what they were. Even if they don't forget, their baggage becomes so big that they do not have the capacity to maneuver to come out of their corrupt packaging. Another options will be the people like Haji Selims or Mayor Mohiuddins - the people with the street power will be elevated to broker political powers. This group never understood or cared about development in the long term. Or its like Hasina or Khaleda. Some simple housewife or daughter, comes to politics and they are no longer simple. They loose all their originality - if they had any.
Or people like Asaduzzaman Noor who don't need money or he is not after corruption. People like him has probably ventured into politics out of pure urge to serve the nation. However, numbers of this kind of people who are accomplished and is beyond many of the shortcomings - they are numbered. So, people like him passes the days in politics making compromises every step of the way and hoping one day he would be big enough so he can make decisions for his party. Alas, with the current structural form - that day would never come. Someone has to change the dynamics within the structure if you have to develop fast. If you do not make those structural changes, Asaduzzaman Noor is also another lost cause in the name of politics - never reaching his own potential.
When all these waste and mis-use of human energy is going on, the only group that is enjoying unchallenged power and the group which is hurting the chance of good governance is this bureaucratic circle of elites. Consciously or unconsciously, they are our burden. This group has to be challenged with injection of professional and competent brains in the politics. Its about time.
What we are saying that someone has to think about the monthly budget of an office bearer. A mayor or an MP should be paid enough so that his or her standard budget is fully paid and leave some extra when they will no longer be office bearer. This will do a tremendous change in the culture politics. We could go on writing a book on it, but you should just look at any developed modern democracy, you will see the proof. More importantly, we think, it is the only way out from the current hodge-podge situation for Bangladesh.
If its that serious then why the proposals aren't moving forward with this otherwise responsive government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed? Do you want to hear? Lets try to guess. Because, your bureaucrats do not think its a good idea to pay the politicians more than what bureaucrats earn. Or the Election Commissioners do not think that somebody who will be elected through their management should be entitled to earn more than them! Don't you believe this? Off course, this is our guess. But this guess is correct, otherwise, why won't these proposals go forward? And your advisers (most of whom are ex-bureaucrats) aren't sure what to do - listen to they peers or listen to their hearts. Policy making is not so easy - it needs courage. Kake dosh dibo. The elected prime-ministers don't have the courage to break out from the bureaucratic tangle, aar era tu unelected people thinking they have a good opportunity to become famous, but won't take any risk. You guys should know that whatever you thought of these jobs while accepting the offer, its not that easy. Fame and success do not come without courage.
Lets take a second look.
Secretaries think that the politicians should not get paid more money than they get. But when the politicians do crime, they just follow orders. When it comes to going to jail, bureaucrats do not go to jail, its the politicians who goes to jail. Why? Because, bureaucrats were just following order!
So, basically what they are saying can be summarized as follows: Bureaucracy is just like a tool. You can use a tool for good purpose or bad purpose. Its the person who should be held responsible if the tool has been used for bad purpose. For example, you can use a knife for good purpose or bad purpose. If someone takes a knife (or a boti) from the kitchen and use that to murder somebody, the knife can't be held responsible. What are you thinking? Don't you agree with this reason? If that is the case, then, can't you just throw a knife in the dustbin and buy a new knife? Eta bolle abaar hobe na. Ebar apnake bola hobe, knife er tu jibon ase! But knife can't be held accountable? That is the raw deal that Bangladesh is getting. Since most of the people is still uneducated, they people elect some fools to office. Doesn't matter who they are, they will become corrupt. The system is designed that way. Politicians comes and goes, but the bureaucrats will become chairmans of different constitutional bodies. How come? One would say the fact that they were part of a failed administration, that would at least disqualify them to take over such an important position as chairman of a regulatory commission. What did they do during their tenure in the bureaucracy? Did they protest in any instances? No, they played by the rule (read they did hamba hamba - thats their qualification). Thats how they became cabinet secretaries or secretaries.
All are either incompetent or hypocrites. Most of the bureaucrats are incompetent - a few are competent but they are hypocrites.
Not only that. The foreigner group, the people which live in the diplomatic zone of Dhaka or those who fly in to give lessons once in every other week, all are the hypocrites. They know very well (from their home countries) that only a professionally paid elected officials can deliver a working democracy for the benefit of the people. But you will never hear this basic premise from any of those. Why? Because, if you get a group of competent politicians, then how would they be prescribing things upon you!
The current leadership of the political parites also do not want to make the elected officials be paid highly. Why is that - you might think? Isn't it counter intuitive that they would be opposing their salary increase? On the face of it, it might seem that way. But if you think a bit, 95% of the current leadership knows that if the positions are made professional, it will attract such competitive people from the private sector that they would not get a chance in that - assuming elections will be held in a level-playing field.
So, basically its in nobody's interest to make the positions of the elected officials be made as professional full-time jobs. Except for the general people. Wait, aren't we acting on the assumption that - at least the current CTG is acting in the interest of the general people? Well, these group of emergency room operators seems to beleive that they have operated on the body, there is no need to stich the wounds and make room for the new tissues to be grown to replace the vacuum left by tumors.
What exactly we are trying to achieve here? - our esteemed readers might be thinking. Off course, this circular allegations will lead the nation nowhere - you may correctly forecast.
And unfortunately, we also agree with you!
More unfortunate thing is that if we do not start this cyclic allegations, what we have now - what it seems that we are getting - that is also leading us nowhere. Majority of the people are yet to understand that. They will realize in another 10 years.
So, what is the solution? Or do we have any plan to salvage the situation?
Yes, we do. We have been shouting for long now. They won't heed to that.
Make the elected positions in the Mayor's offices, Upazilla, Zilla and UP Chairman's offices and Parliament full-time paid jobs. The pay scale of these should be much higher than those determined by the PSC. The salary administration of the elected officials should be done through a completely different channel, preferably the EC Secretariat. Politicians go to jail, because the responsibility of failure is upon them. Give them some space. Make these attractive enough so people start considering leaving the corporate jobs and serve the country. Its plain and simple. Only this step can save you all.
Also on a different note, for many of you it might be a matter of being famous or popular, for some of you are losing some money, for some of you its about loosing some power, but all of you should remember that most of the people of Bangladesh, it is about life and death, it is about being able to eat two full meal, it is about being able to send their kids to school or buying health care for their old mother. So have some mercy on people.
To the daughter of Bangabandhu, have some mercy on people. Go to retirement. Even with your own words, you have reached that point a long time back. So have some mercy on us. Have some mercy on your party. One day you were called in to serve the party. Its strong now. Leave it alone and see from the distance.
To the wife of Major Zia, have some mercy on people. Go to retirement. You have shown enough to the nation. Its about time for you.
To the members of bureaucracy, have some mercy on people. Stop playing with words, start doing what you are paid for. Also, don't think that war criminals will come back to your rescue. Don't block the tribunal. Its coming.
You all had your day for dirty plays. Now, let people have a fair chance to life. Before we end, let us append
a latest example / evidence that proves our allegation that anything having a potential to make a dent (in real sense) to the power oligarchy of the corrupt self-serving bureaucracy, that is not progressing. And our intelligentsia or civil society members will be mum about it. Why is that? Because, the civil society representation is also taken over by the ex bureaucrats.
Allow us to end this rather lengthy article with a concrete proposal. The salary structure and its administration of the elected officials (starting from councilors of union porishod to the elected MPs) should be part of the budget of Election Commission. It should be their duty to elect this official as they are empowered to hold election by the constitution. It is also their responsibility to make sure that competent citizens gets elected and these people can perform their job professionally. So they should be paid for full time jobs. Now how do you determine the salary. Our proposal is EC should set a benchmark amount (say 500 taka per voter or any lower amount that makes sense) for the salaries of all the elected officials of the republic. They should also set a general formula about how these central fund will be distributed among the elected official as a monthly salary. Next thing that they should address is to find out a way to finance this budget. Its not huge budget if you compare the horiloot that happens in the public accounts (Read the
news item below, Just let the ad-hoc public accounts committee to work, you will see. But you have to remove the incumbent secretaries from this ad-hoc committee).
Currently, EC is supposed to get its budget from govt. ex checker. In addition, EC should seek alternate way to finance itself. That does not mean they have to ask for money to foreign governments (We strongly disagree that our EC's decision to bring in transparent boxes from outside help. It is not to say that Bangladesh is already ready to deny foreign help. But the basic governance structure should be built with local resource. Let them help the national ex-checker where those foreign governments are hurting us, but not the election commission or ACC. We should take care of them ourselves, otherwise you will never go there).
Rather EC should sit down with Mr. Chairman of the NBR. In the tax forms, the citizens pay the govt. ex checker the budget to run the country, to provide basic services. Add a separate section in those forms. Let the citizens pay the 300 taka (or more if anyone wants) every year as a salary of their representatives. You can make it voluntary for those who are below the minimum bracket of income tax level. However, let even those who are below the minimum bracket of income to make this yearly payment if they want to. Make this donation tax-free. Government ex checker can compensate any lagging that might be there. For the election commission, it would also be a good feedback mechanism - to understand the support they are getting from the voters. We think this fluctuation of yearly donations will be a better benchmark to judge EC's overall performance - much more effective feedback than the one they are currently considering. Giving the voters none-of-the-above option may be a way to measure the pulse of democracy - but you have to think twice why none of the major democracies has adopted that. Asking the voters to support the EC voluntarily is a better mechanism, we think. Or you can have both and see which one works better.
If you do not pave the way for the younger talented committed politicians to engage in the nation building, there would not be much that we can do now. But be sure, there would be time when the current youth might rewrite the stone in your memory "Here lies an important member of the generation which watched over the destruction of their children's future".
If you thought some of the ideas are worth of your reading time, please forward it to others. If you have an ear to the columnists in regular traditional media, please forward it to them. If you have an ear to the journalists and news editors of the electronic media, discuss it with them. Hope they would look at the suggestions and give due diligence.
Thanks for your time,
Innovation Line
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Note: This is a freelance column, published mainly in different internet based forums. This column is open for contribution by the members of new generation, sometimes referred to as Gen 71. If you identify yourself as someone from that age-group and want to contribute to this column, please feel free to contact. Thanks to the group moderator for publishing the article as Creative Commons contents.
Dear readers, also, if you thought the article was important enough so it should come under attention of the head of the government please forward the message to them. Email address for the Chief Advisor: feeedback@pmo.gov.bd_ or at http://www.cao.gov.bd/feedback/comments.php .
Also, if you thought the article was important enough so it should come under attention of the EC, please forward the message to them. Email address for the EC: ecs@bol-online.com or you can use this link: http://www.ecs.gov.bd/contact.php3
The more of you forward it to them, the less will be the need to go back to street agitation. Use ICT to practice democracy.
The more of you forward it to them, the less will be the need to go back to street agitation. Use ICT to practice democracy.
CG-formed PAC set to be scrapped
The ad hoc body 'violates constitution'
Shakhawat Liton
The ad hoc Public Accounts Committee (PAC) created by the caretaker government in December last year to scrutinise reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is now about to being cancelled as it 'violates the constitution'.
With the consent of President Iajuddin Ahmed, the finance ministry formed the ad hoc PAC on December 18 to scrutinise audit reports on government accounts in absence of a parliament.
But the ad hoc PAC is yet to begin functioning as objections were raised from different quarters including the speaker of the last parliament saying that the constitution does not allow anyone other than an elected parliament to form the committee, sources in the finance ministry said.
In the wake of the criticism, the finance ministry is now pondering cancellation of the circular that declared the formation of the ad hoc PAC, a senior official of the ministry told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.
Sensing that the committee could not be effective due to the legal debate, the finance ministry did not move to reconstitute the committee following resignation of its chairman, the erstwhile law adviser to the government, in early January of this year, the senior official added.
Speaker Jamiruddin Sircar has been opposing the government move to form the ad hoc committee from the very beginning.
Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, the speaker said he again sent his legal opinion over a week ago to the government saying the formation of the ad hoc PAC contradicts with the constitution which authorises only a parliament to form a PAC and other such committees, comprising only its members.
"Duties of elected lawmakers cannot be discharged by non-elected persons. Functions of the committee [ad hoc PAC] will be illegal," Sircar said.
Sources in the office of CAG and finance ministry said the military backed caretaker government formed the ad hoc PAC on suggestion of the World Bank and the CAG office.
But, CAG officials said they objected to the inclusion of incumbent government secretaries as members in the committee. The ad hoc PAC has three incumbent secretaries as its members.
CAG officials said incumbent government secretaries cannot be members of a PAC that investigates financial irregularities in government ministries and other government organisations. For the same reason, no incumbent minister can also be a member of a PAC, they added.
After the formation of the ad hoc PAC on December 18, its member secretary, Mahbub Ahmed who is also an additional secretary to the finance ministry, held an informal meeting with officials of CAG in an effort to start the operations of the committee, CAG officials said.
Another ad hoc PAC was formed earlier on October 19, 1983. The erstwhile chief martial law administrator (CMLA) formed the committee with the then law minister KA Bakar as its head. The then CMLA did not face any obstacle in forming that ad hoc PAC since the constitution was suspended back then. But now, under the current state of emergency the constitution is not suspended, the CAG officials said.
With the dissolution of the eighth parliament on October 27 of last year the immediate past PAC was also dissolved. A new parliament was supposed to be formed following the January 22 general elections, which was stalled due to a political crisis that is still plaguing the country.
Now a new parliament is expected to be formed in early 2009, as the stalled election is scheduled to be held on the third week of December this year. So, resumption of PAC's activity is unlikely in the next eight months.
In absence of a PAC, the number of unresolved audit reports involving hundreds of crores of taka, and the cases of retired government officials who are not getting their pensions due to unsettled objections, are increasing. Moreover, recovery of public money that might have been misappropriated has also been stalling.
HOW AD HOC PAC WAS FORMED
Following the World Bank's advice, the office of CAG in July last year sent a proposal to the finance ministry to form the ad hoc PAC. It however asked the finance ministry to consult with the law ministry as the formation of it had legal matters involved.
CAG is authorised to audit all the income and expenditure of the government, and reports it to the parliament through the president, and PAC adjudicates all objections to the audit reports.
CAG suggested the government last year to form an ad hoc PAC comprising former justices, former government officials, academics, and politicians.
The law ministry also okayed the formation of an ad hoc PAC, and the finance ministry formed the committee headed by the then law adviser Mainul Hosein, sources in the finance ministry said.
The other ten members of the ad hoc PAC are the incumbent director general of National Security Intelligence, incumbent secretary to the Parliament Secretariat, incumbent secretary to the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division of planning ministry, incumbent chairman of the National Board of Revenue, an incumbent additional secretary to the Finance Division of finance ministry, incumbent president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, President of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, former president of Dhaka District Bar Association Fakir Delwar Hossain, President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Farhad Hossain, and Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman who was the chief of Power and Participation Research Centre before becoming an adviser to the caretaker government.
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