Officials’ foreign trips irk PM

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday expressed annoyance with bureaucrats for making foreign trips with public money in the name of expediting the implementation of development projects, officials said.

She expressed her annoyance while approving a proposal for an upward revision of the project to construct the Bangladesh Chancery Complex in Islamabad at a meeting of the executive committee of the National Economic Council at the planning commission.

Officials of the ministry of foreign affairs, which has been implementing the project since 2007, so far made three trips to Islamabad in connection with the project, said the officials attending the meeting.

The PM expressed disappointment as she was describing to the meeting that the Ekti Bari, Ekti Khamar-EBEK (One House, One Farm) project was submitted for approval keeping the provision for foreign trips in it.

She said that there was no justification of keeping foreign trips in the Ekti Bari, Ekti Khamar project since it is entirely a home-grown one.

Planning minister MA Mannan while briefing the reporters admitted that the PM expressed annoyance over the issue.

She has asked the officials to shun the practice that costs public money, he said.

This was the second time in less than two months that the PM gave a similar directive.

On October 22, the PM asked the government officials to refrain from frequent foreign trips with public money and finding alternatives to frequent revision of development projects.

There have been widespread criticisms after reports in national dailies highlighted that tours made by bureaucrats for gathering knowledge were basically pleasure trips.

The projects in question included the Mujibnagar Irrigation Development Project, in which its implementing agency kept an allocation of Tk 1.68 crore to train two dozen officials in Australia, Germany and the Nederlands.

The ECNEC approved the projects on October 10.

In January 2018, former Chittagong Port Authority chairman Rear Admiral M Khaled Iqbal reportedly went on an overseas tour for gaining experience on port operation even after his transfer order was issued two weeks earlier.

A Bangladesh Agricultural Extension project awaits approval by the planning commission for cultivation of coffee and cashew nuts in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Tk 50 lakh was reportedly proposed to be allocated in the project for training of 10 officials in Vietnam, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net