One of the most disturbing pieces of news of the year about economy was the revelation that there had been systematic distortion of data by government bodies, especially the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) followed by Export Promotion Bureau (EPB). The implications of such lunacy have been felt by the past government itself for over a decade. The government of that period was unable to effectively plan and ended up in a mess. These problems had been brought to light several times by members of parliament in the house, but a rosy picture had to be painted so that the government could claim to have developed the country by leaps and bounds.
The cat has come out of the bag. In the changed political environment, the same BBS has come out clean on the erroneous representation of data and now a committee has been formed by the interim government to produce a white paper on the economy showing the scale and breadth of this deception following a probe. According to a report published in this newspaper, the white-paper analysts have stated that the "committee's one focus on addressing data distortions, data reliability" will aim at "improving data collection, processing efficiencies" in order to maintain accuracy.
Various departments followed different approaches to collecting and collating data. There are nominal terms and there is expenditure method and they produce different results. This confusion leads to discrepancies which must be reconciled at policy level and that results in inevitable delays "in reporting by various agencies, including government bodies." The fallout from all such data juggling is not lost upon various stakeholders. It is plain to see that foreign investors have become jittery, not just due to the recent political turmoil, but also because the data presented by state bodies, including BBS and EPB did not add up.
Foreign and domestic investors need reliable data to make plans for investments. While it may have been politically expedient for the army of mandarins serving the state machinery to cook up books for pleasing the executive, it sent entirely the wrong message to the private sector and probable foreign investors. This brings to question whether the billions of dollars (financed by foreign loans) to develop infrastructure was based on real need and demand. This extends from the rail link of Padma Bridge to the multiple mega-sized power plants that cannot be commissioned, not only due to lack of fuel but also due to lack of demand. It is intriguing how national planning was done on everything from agriculture, industry, infrastructure development, generating employment opportunities, etc. based on fictitious data year-after-year.
This is what happens when a regime gets carried away by its own propaganda. It has happened before in other parts of the world. If one looks at history, the former Soviet Union was a prime example. But that country was a command economy with centralised planning whereas Bangladesh has been a free market economy for decades. Yet, the net result has been the same. One can only hope that some good will come out of the current task undertaken. But for any good to happen, there needs be a total reshuffle of BBS personnel - a break with the past meaning no non-statisticians working for it. The revamped bureau must be allowed to work unfettered and without political interference. There must be accountability in data gathering and publishing. The BBS or EPB has to maintain cent per cent objectivity. Transparency and accountability must become standard operating procedures and only then can qualitative change happen.
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