Shrine managers becoming money minters

CUSTODIANS or managers of shrines dotting the cities, towns and rural areas of Bangladesh gobble up the lion’s share of the donations offered by devotees to support the needy and for religious purposes in the absence of a system to ensure transparency and accountability in the use of the funds, reported a local daily.
An economist at Dhaka University, said that in his study on the shrines he found that the custodians made public only 8 percent of the total income from the shrines. The financial statement of the shrine of Hazrat Shah Ali Baghdadi at Mirpur showed that its total income was over Tk 4.31 crore in the 2012-2013 fiscal. Of the amount, over Tk 1.20 crore came from ‘sinduk’ while over Tk 1.57 crore from ‘palong’, Tk.75 lakh from FDR interest; 22 lakh rent received against shops and Tk 23 lakh from leases.
The statement showed that the shrine management committee had spent Tk 1,54,58,000 to pay salaries and benefits to its employees, Tk 16,80,000 to pay the bills for gas, electricity, water and telephone, Tk 10,70,000 as waqf fees, Tk 1,14,55,000 on construction and renovation work, Tk 4,88,000 on food distributed among the destitutes and around Tk 5 lakh on legal battles.
Waqf officials and sources at Shah Ali Shrine said that the actual amount would be several times the income declared in the statement. They stressed the need for strict monitoring of the income and spending of the shrines. ‘One can easily guess the income of a shrine that spends more than Tk 1.5 crore on staff salaries,’ said a devotee who lives in Shah Ali Shrine compound.
Let us compare this to taxation – if the figures are even remotely accurate then it means that over 65 percent of an average shrines income went to pay for its expenses while only 1.11 percent went to pay for the ‘apparent’ real purpose of the shrines – to help the poor and needy. Imagine a situation where our government would have to spend Tk 65 to collect Tk 100 in taxes and one sees the monstrous inefficiency of the situation. It does not require a degree in rocket science to understand that the entire system is milking the poor and underprivileged while benefiting only a select few who manage the shrines.
It is unfortunate that most of our populace are poor and uneducated and feel that they have no other alternative to getting so-called ‘spiritual help’ but by visiting these shrines and asking the help of frauds and charlatans who are siphoning their money in what must be called a Ponzi scheme – with one difference, that they don’t have to pay the money back. Over hundreds of crores are being spent in this manner by the people who, ironically, are the ones who most need the money.
The Quran clearly states that Allah will not change the condition of a people unless they change it themselves. It is our fervent request to the countrymen that they don’t fall prey to the caprices, whims, and dark suggestions of their mind which persuade them to visit these gangsters in the hopes of getting spiritual salvation. It would be much simpler for them to start to find ways of getting solace by acts of prayer and meditation themselves – surely no intermediaries are necessary there. If they contributed the money which they gave to these shrines to a bank account they would also be financially secure as the amounts would only increase if kept in fixed deposits. Ultimately our needs and problems can be best addressed by ourselves through individual prayer and meditation – going to charlatans and spending money will never be the answer.