Staff Reporter :
Around 39.5 percent of the poor and needy people did not get ‘Family Cards’ issued by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) due to corruption, nepotism or political interference, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) said on Thursday.
Of the deprived people, 34.4 percent are female and 31.4 percent are male, it added.
About the causes of the exclusion as beneficiaries, TIB said, “About 80.4 percent has been excluded due to irregularities and corruption while 5.5 percent did not take the cards voluntarily and 14.1 percent people did not know the reason of exclusion.”
TIB revealed the information during a webinar seminar titled “Governance Challenges in TCB’s Family Card Programme” after conducting a survey this year.
The seminar was attended by Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director, Transparency International Bangladesh, Professor Dr. SumaiyaKhair, Advisor Executive Management, Transparency International Bangladesh and Mohammad Rafiqul Hassan, Director, Research and Policy, Transparency International Bangladesh.
Differing with the government’s poverty rate, TIB said, “According to the government, the poverty rate has increased from 20.5percent (2018-2019 FY) to 29.5 percent (2019-2020 FY) as an impact of COVID-19. However, research by non-governmental organisations shows that the overall poverty rate was at 35 percent (June 2020), and an additional 32 million people became newly poor (November 2021).”
The respondents of the survey said that they did not get the family cards because of the enrollment of wealthy people for political reasons, issuing multiple cards to the same family, changing the photo of the enlisted person with another person and bribery.
They also said that there was lack of transparency and publicity of the enlisting process of the real beneficiaries.
About 44.2 percent did not get cards due to the lack of information dissemination, 33.8 percent due to lack of lobbying or recommendation, 19.6 percent cares were issued against ineligible persons while 15.7 percent were excluded for political reasons.
Some 11.6 percent said their photos were collected for making cards but it was given to someone else. About 7.4 percent said that the authority told them that there was a shortage of cards.
About 6.8 percent were excluded because multiple cards were issued to the same household while some 5.3 percent did not get cards as they could not give bribes.
Quoting the concerned authorities, TIB said some 0.85 million families of various professionals (transport workers, professionals, etc. who have lost their jobs due to ‘lockdown’) had been excluded from the cash assistance programme list.
The anti-corruption watchdog said, they did not know why 0.85 million families were excluded from the family card programme and why the new list included village police, members of Ansar, retired government employees, teachers, lab assistants, doctors, village doctors and journalists, etc.
TIB also found that many of the marginalised people of remote areas had been deprived, especially women and ethnic minorities with whom public representatives have little contact.
Finding irregularities in enrollment process, the survey said that 76.1 percent financially solvent people were enrolled in the list while 65 percent local public representatives and their family members, 44.5 percent local influential, 44.5 percent politicians, 7.1 percent government officials, staffs, their family members and 5.2 percent sellers and dealers included in the list though there were ineligible.
About the TCB products, the survey found that 33.3 percent beneficiaries received low quality products in packets – crushed pulses, hardened sugar, low quality edible oil.
According to TCB, some of the district level food warehouses have not followed proper standards for storing the products, therefore products need to change in some districts.
