Editorial Desk :
They know how opportune is the time for the greedy ones to be rich and powerful. There is no need for honesty or competence.
We do not need police only to catch thieves or political leadership for good governance. “The people’s police” are used to keep the people in fear of no protection. All the government institutions have no use for ensuring good governance for the people. The country is in chaos and its economy is drying up. The government lives on borrowed money and borrowed time.
Finding the whole nation in such a degenerative state some retired government servants regretting that they have retired and cannot have a share in the looting of public wealth have invented a new idea.
Forty two desperate retired bureaucrats at last came up with the idea of being useful as think tanks to assist the government in formulating policies. Blinded by greed they have not seen how they have exposed the bitter truth of failure of the government policies.
What they have said in effect is the need of competent bureaucrats like them for formulating policies and not for implementing those policies. The country must have their services for the welfare of the country.
It will be a non-political and service-oriented research organisation devoted to the welfare of the country. The decision was made at a meeting held at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on Monday. Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman and former secretary Iqbal Mahmud convened the meeting.
Are we living in so much mismanagement of the government that the Chairman of Anti-Corruption Commission had the audacity to convene the meeting of retired civil servants for forming think tanks to assist the government? Everybody in the government seems to be under no political or administrative discipline.
Firstly, a sitting government official has no business to convene such a meeting. It conveys the message, perhaps rightly so, that the government is behind the initiative in the first place. All the more, this can be seen as an indication that what the government is doing does not make sense in the area of framing policies and elsewhere.
The search for recruits of retired civil servants only shows failure of the present civil servants who must take the blame for deterioration of the government so much that it cannot face free election.
The government means law enforcing armed agencies. The government that needs bureaucrats to improve its policies is going surely the wrong way.
Despite isolation from the people there is no realisation the country needs new political direction not more bureaucratic participation. The ministers do not have to prove competence. It is because of the inefficiency of the ministers that there are failures everywhere and the truth cannot remain hidden too long.
To cite one example: The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) had to pay almost Tk 9,000 crore to 74 private companies as capacity payment in the last fiscal year. In turn, as compensation, the government had to provide subsidy to the power board. The power board has incurred a cumulative loss of Tk 60, 370 crore in power purchase and operation till now.
If another glaring example is needed then we can draw the attention to the fact that each kilometre of expansion work on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway cost $7 million. For Dhaka-Mawa, it was $11.9 million per kilometre and $2.5 million for the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. But in India, constructing one kilometre of a four-lane road cost $1.1 million to $1.3 million, including land acquisition.
We don’t have to mention about the near empty banks. The way the government is borrowing money from banks it is to be feared that money will not be coming for investment in private sector. The economy is in a mess and no way of saving the situation in sight. The people have to suffer more miseries.
But the bureaucracy dominated government depending on police power cannot think of the need of political leadership for good governance. The country must have politically accountable government and not retired bureaucrats motivated by power and greed.
They know how opportune is the time for the greedy ones to be rich and powerful. There is no need for honesty or competence.
We do not need police only to catch thieves or political leadership for good governance. “The people’s police” are used to keep the people in fear of no protection. All the government institutions have no use for ensuring good governance for the people. The country is in chaos and its economy is drying up. The government lives on borrowed money and borrowed time.
Finding the whole nation in such a degenerative state some retired government servants regretting that they have retired and cannot have a share in the looting of public wealth have invented a new idea.
Forty two desperate retired bureaucrats at last came up with the idea of being useful as think tanks to assist the government in formulating policies. Blinded by greed they have not seen how they have exposed the bitter truth of failure of the government policies.
What they have said in effect is the need of competent bureaucrats like them for formulating policies and not for implementing those policies. The country must have their services for the welfare of the country.
It will be a non-political and service-oriented research organisation devoted to the welfare of the country. The decision was made at a meeting held at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on Monday. Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman and former secretary Iqbal Mahmud convened the meeting.
Are we living in so much mismanagement of the government that the Chairman of Anti-Corruption Commission had the audacity to convene the meeting of retired civil servants for forming think tanks to assist the government? Everybody in the government seems to be under no political or administrative discipline.
Firstly, a sitting government official has no business to convene such a meeting. It conveys the message, perhaps rightly so, that the government is behind the initiative in the first place. All the more, this can be seen as an indication that what the government is doing does not make sense in the area of framing policies and elsewhere.
The search for recruits of retired civil servants only shows failure of the present civil servants who must take the blame for deterioration of the government so much that it cannot face free election.
The government means law enforcing armed agencies. The government that needs bureaucrats to improve its policies is going surely the wrong way.
Despite isolation from the people there is no realisation the country needs new political direction not more bureaucratic participation. The ministers do not have to prove competence. It is because of the inefficiency of the ministers that there are failures everywhere and the truth cannot remain hidden too long.
To cite one example: The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) had to pay almost Tk 9,000 crore to 74 private companies as capacity payment in the last fiscal year. In turn, as compensation, the government had to provide subsidy to the power board. The power board has incurred a cumulative loss of Tk 60, 370 crore in power purchase and operation till now.
If another glaring example is needed then we can draw the attention to the fact that each kilometre of expansion work on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway cost $7 million. For Dhaka-Mawa, it was $11.9 million per kilometre and $2.5 million for the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. But in India, constructing one kilometre of a four-lane road cost $1.1 million to $1.3 million, including land acquisition.
We don’t have to mention about the near empty banks. The way the government is borrowing money from banks it is to be feared that money will not be coming for investment in private sector. The economy is in a mess and no way of saving the situation in sight. The people have to suffer more miseries.
But the bureaucracy dominated government depending on police power cannot think of the need of political leadership for good governance. The country must have politically accountable government and not retired bureaucrats motivated by power and greed.
