THE surprising development of some vested quarters in misappropriating public money is not few in this saga of development. The latest story of an eight-member delegation of Mymensingh’s Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University set to go on a 10-day Europe tour to inspect 15 lifts planned to be installed is not surprising enough as we become accustomed to seeing such high rated corruption. When teachers’ community indulges in corruption, there was no authority to teach morality to retreat the nation’s freefall and degradation, unluckily; we are in such a dire situation. The corroded society could not restore only by government initiative rather social accountability of all stakeholders.
As per news media, from October 20, the delegation would visit Switzerland and Spain during the tour. The University VC Prof Dr AHM Mustafizur Rahman was primarily nominated to go on the trip but he withdrew his name on October 1 after facing criticism on social media. The delegation, however, includes only three technical persons while five others are non-technical. Creative Engineers, the sole distributor of Switzerland-based Schindler Management Ltd, got the tender of Tk 13 crore to supply the lifts, he said, adding that a trip for pre-shipment inspection was mentioned in the tender.
The delegation would first visit Switzerland where the lifts are kept and later go to Spain from where the lifts would be shipped to Bangladesh. Many countries clone the lifts and inspection is important to avoid receiving cloned lifts. According to University sources, the lifts would be installed in three 10-storey buildings one of which is an academic building for Faculty of Social Science and Faculty of Business Administration. Two other buildings would-be students’ dormitories.
Though the University authorities said the companies would bear the expenses, we see the scheduled visit is the sheer waste of public money as the company inscribes the tour cost into the price of lift. The involvement of teachers in such corruption could be avoided if the corruption watchdog becomes strong and people’s participation confirmed in the accountability measures.
