State money but health centres named after parents of high officials in feudal vein
MANY bureaucrats today seem to have forgotten the job requirement that while delivering their service to the state they have to be on guard that their acts do not create a conflict of interests. A report yesterday revealed that one minister and many other bureaucrats have named welfare-oriented organisations in their localities after the names of their parents or relatives while in office spending money from the state coffer.
Reportedly 80 percent money — Tk 35 crore of Tk 45 crore — of ‘Karimpur Nurjahan-Samsunnahar Mother and Child Specialised Hospital’ that is now being built at Lalmonirhat is being provided by the Department of Social Services under the Ministry of Social Welfare. This hospital is being built in the village of Social Welfare Minister Nuruzzaman Ahmed. The hospital is named after the minister’s mother. Obviously, this is a breach of oath that the minister took prior to his assuming of office and a clear case of conflict of interest. What is still more interesting to find is that the minister’s brother got the construction work of the hospital. It means the money is going to his family.
Besides the ministers, there are many bureaucrats who also have established hospitals, health centres, training centres, etc. in the name of their parents or relatives through the project of the Department of Social Services. According to the news of the daily, the Department of Social Services has constructed or is constructing such facilities through 18 projects from 2015 to 2022, of which at least 11 are in the name of parents or relatives of ministers or bureaucrats. It has been revealed that nine high government officials have taken Tk 286 crore to build hospitals in the name of parents and grandparents. This is simply preposterous.
In Bangladesh NGOs can build and run hospitals, training centres or similar facilities with grants from the Ministry of Social Welfare. According to the rule, in such centres the government will pay 60 per cent of the total cost of projects in urban areas and 80 per cent in rural areas, and the rest will be given by NGOs. But the report says that the NGOs that are getting these welfare-oriented projects do not have the capacity to establish and manage such institutions. Clearly, with the motivation of making ‘immortal’ the name of parents or grandparents, high officials have used public money as if it is their personal property. When questioned, one such retired official defended himself that he could make a mistake because he was “emotionally-driven”.
As the present authoritarian government is running the state like feudal lords and not accountable to people, it can only be expected that high state officials will follow the suit, that is, they would use public money like feudal lords.
