MoFA seeks fund for essential programmes\\\' implementation

Rezaul Karim | Published: January 11, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has sought immediate allocation from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) for implementation of some of its selected essential programmes, officials said.Â Â Â
Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali has recently sent a letter to Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith with six-point proposals involving about Tk 844 million.
The finance minister has already directed the division concerned to take necessary steps in this connection, a high official at the MoF said.
Some Tk 530 million has been allocated for official visits to different countries during the current fiscal year. Of the amount, Tk 430 million and Tk 100 million have been allocated for the very very important persons (VVIPs) and general visitors respectively. In the meantime, around Tk 404 million has been spent from the allocation, a MoFA official said.
Presently, some Tk 125 million has been left with the fund. But the ministry owes Tk 85 million to Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BBA), he said.
He, however, said for this, the foreign minister has proposed an allocation of Tk Tk 500 million for government visits to different countries during January 15 to June 15 next.
The MoFA has also sought an allocation of $ 0.4 million from the MoF for the 'Stand Alone Fund' for the current fiscal year.
The fund has been formed aiming to gather or receive mandate from different countries in favour of the Awami League-led coalition government's various activities like the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) activities and enhancing its image and popularity, sources said. Â
Along with those, some 19 workstations have been proposed for the USA and the EU countries and 36 for Asia-Pacific and African countries. Expenditure of the proposed workstations has been fixed at Tk 182.74 million, including licence charge, according to MoFA data.
Besides, some Tk 134 million has been sought for establishment of video conferencing system at the ministry for correspondence with its different foreign missions, expanding the Foreign Service Academy building and introducing an automation and e-governess project.
The MoFA has sought re-fixing the imprest fund for its ten foreign missions. The missions are Singapore, Amman (Jordan), Doha, Manchester, Muscat, Canberra, Islamabad, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai and Manila.
An official concerned said an imprest fund for ten foreign missions was fixed two decades ago. Re-fixation of the fund for the missions is necessary and reasonable in the present financial context. For example, some Tk 3.9 million was fixed for the permanent mission at Singapore which remains unchanged now.
Besides, two missions will be re-opened in Bucharest, Romania and Algiers, Algeria and a new mission in Ethiopia. For this, an allocation is needed urgently, he said.
rezamuu@gmail.com