GIVING a damn to public criticism against interest-free car scheme for Deputy Secretaries, the Finance Ministry has allocated Tk 100 crore from a fund otherwise reserved to face natural disaster. When we have one fourth of our population under poverty line and 12 percent under extreme poverty and when fulfillment of basic amenities — food, healthcare, education, housing — are big challenge the spending to win the heart and soul of mid-level bureaucrats has no other purpose but to buy their loyalty. But 1500 Deputy Secretaries who entered into the government ‘Authorized Officer’ in last September through a Gazette Notification, would not get the loan from the new allocation, they would need Tk 291.70 crore more. It is not only against public interest to arrange fund from tax-payers money but also against the advice of urban planners and environmentalists who are calling for limiting personal vehicles in city streets. More private transports will only over crowd the city. Moreover the policy is discriminating private people who have no such source of funding.
We know, consolidating political power by bribing high officials is a growing practice when ordinary people are powerless because their votes are no longer required to be elected in a government controlled election system. Wasting from national exchequer for providing unjustified privilege at the time when life standard of mass people is strangulating due to the manifold crisis such as soaring rise in food price and other costs of living. By issuing gazette notification, as reported in a daily, the Ministry of Public Administration has stated that from Deputy Secretary to Senior Secretary, bureaucrats are now eligible to get Tk 30 lakh interest-free loan for maximum of 10 years and Tk 50,000 a month for maintenance the vehicle.
The new move would benefit around 1,500 Deputy Secretaries while many others remain in the queue from economic cadre and judicial services. What is strange is that officer equivalent to Deputy Secretary and Joint Secretary of other cadre services like health, agriculture, police, customs and tax, audit, education would not be entitled to enjoy the facility. We fear the move will widen the existing discrepancies between different cadres and instead of increasing efficiency of various cadres services, unrest may further grow among cadres at the cost of overall service discipline.
We feel that the government should retreat from the move as all public servants would need private cars very soon when private people will have to bear the cost. It is not justified other than having political justification of the ruling party to create a loyal bureaucratic service to continue in power. This is a political price for the government in power while public are forced to pay at a time people don’t know what services they get from such bureaucrats and a high headed administration at the top.
