Finance Minister AMA Muhith criticised Wednesday government officials for slow progress in their getting accustomed to innovations and said steps have been taken to eliminate irregularities from different tiers of the bureaucracy.
He was particularly critical of the 'self-willed' practices in the country's accountant-general office.
The finance minister said in the bureaucracy here backward pressure is always very much strong, with a section of officials always taking the backseat instead of changing their mindset in keeping with an independent country.
It is not unusual of growing conservative mindset in bureaucracy. But, when there is innovation, bureaucrats in other countries can adapt to that quickly.
However, in Bangladesh it is not happening. "We (bureaucrats) remain in backward position on any pretext," the minister said at a meeting with a delegation of Bangladesh Audit and Accounts Officers Parishad at his secretariat office.
Led by Parishad president Shafiul Azam, the delegation, during the meeting, demanded making effective the promotion of ninth-grade first-class officers to the post of Audit and Accounts Officer from the very first day they were given current charge.
They also demanded of the government not to keep anyone in current charge against any vacant post.
Mr Muhith told his audience that steps have been taken to eliminate irregularities from different levels of the bureaucracy. "But stagnancy has been deep-rooted in the Auditor-General's office. There is no remedy for it. No order is being implemented there."
On a much stronger note of criticism, he said: "They (AG office) run by their own laws though the office is under the finance ministry's regulation."
Replying to a query by newsmen, he said the office was supposed to follow the order of the ministry but they are not doing so.
In this case, Mr Muhith underscored the need for persuasion for implementation of the orders, which he cannot do at this 'old age'.
"My working power has declined, memory has become faded. I have no energy at the moment to pursue the orders I gave earlier. This is my own assessment about myself. It's my retirement time," he said.
He said giving additional charge to additional commissioners (land) as finance officer without his ministry's nod is offensive. "It's absolutely a wrong decision."
Indicating the need for casting off old legacies, he noted that Bangladesh was not a successor state. "Had Bangladesh been divided from Pakistan through mutualisation, it could be successor to Pakistan. But the country was born through a war."
The finance minister said: "We should have said goodbye to old system and started a totally new system then. The Mujibnagar government had thought about it, but could not implement."
He said the Pay and Service Commission had recommended introducing 16 grades in the new pay scale. "But I think we would not be able to introduce it this time."
syful-islam@outlook.com
