Staff Reporter :
Government’s lack of planning and coordination in tackling the coronavirus crisis has thrown the country into a disastrous situation, said a study by the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on Monday.
The study was conducted after analysing data following seven indicators of governance including rule of law, responsiveness, capacity and effectiveness, coordination and participation, accountability, transparency, and control of corruption.
Despite a number of steps undertaken by the government for tackling novel coronavirus outbreak, deficiencies in every indicator of good governance were prominent, the study said.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of the TIB unveiled the research findings in an online press conference along with the members of the research team.
“This crisis is mainly health sector centred which has negatively impacted socio-economic sectors. We have conducted the study as it can be helpful for the initiatives [by the government and partners] to tackle the coronavirus crisis,” Dr Iftekharuzzaman said in his opening speech. The study team found that the weak capacity of health sector as a result of long-term lack of planning, lack of good governance and lack of capacity has become wide open during the crisis.
The government failed to take adequate preparations even after getting three-months time, according to the study.
“There were notable deficiencies in all the seven indicators of good governance. It is still there,” Dr Iftekharuzzaman said, adding, “There has been a tendency to make bureaucratic decisions by ignoring specific opinions in all cases, including lockdowns.”
He said, “Due to lack of widespread social participation and proper information dissemination, the government failed to create public awareness which made the lockdown ineffective.”
“Health workers’ risks and crisis in medical management increased due to irresponsibility and corruption in the supply of protection materials,” he added.
The study said that the actual beneficiaries were deprived due to lack of coordination.
“On one hand the business-friendly and loan-based incentives, and financial support for the extremely poor is insufficient, on the other hand, the opportunity for debt defaulters to receive incentives-all this makes these incentives difficult to reach for the common people,” said Dr Iftekharuzzaman.
He also said that the tendency to cover up irregularities, corruption and mismanagement through restrictions on disclosure of information in a way encourages corruption.
In this context, the TIB placed 15-point recommendations including arranging adequate tests, reconsidering the decision to revoke the lockdown, coordination among different ministries and government departments, increasing budget for health sector by five percent, and ensuring accountability and exemplary punishment over corruption, and triage management in hospitals.
TIB also recommended ensuring proper management of medical equipment including used safety equipment, financial assistance for the ultra-poor, informal sector workers and day labourers, and waiving the current agricultural loans.
It also said that the list of relief and social security beneficiaries needs to be updated and must be published on the website.
“If the government wants to tackle this crisis, the right to get and publish accurate information must not be diminished,” Dr Iftekharuzzaman said.
