Heavy cost of skill shortage

The annual flight of US$4.0 billion out of Bangladesh on account of salaries and allowances of skilled foreign workforce in the country, as disclosed by the finance minister at a meeting of the Economic Reporters Forum, is a shocking revelation. Such a drainage is what one has long been apprehensive of in view of total apathy of the authorities concerned—the University Grants Commission, the education ministry, the Planning Commission and relevant businesses which engage expatriate personnel to keep the wheels of their industries running.
But what’s about the foreigners illegally employed? The amount siphoned off by them might be more than US$4 billion as feared by officials of the National Board of Revenue, the home ministry as well as some branches of foreign banks. What is really strange is that there is still no list of foreigners working in Bangladesh due to lack of coordination among the government agencies responsible for giving work permits.
Thousands of foreigners come to Bangladesh every year with tourist or business visas, but start working in private sector including readymade garments industries, IT and other manufacturing industries, educational institutions and what not. But during their departure, they also do not pay any taxes, making a huge revenue loss for the country.
Normally, a number of government agencies including the Board of Investment, the NGO Affairs Bureau and the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority approve work permits for foreigners. According to the NBR sources, quoted in media, only around 12,000 of at least 4,00,000 foreigners working in the country file tax returns every fiscal year.
The Income Tax Ordinance-1984 says, a foreign national needs to open tax file if he or she lives in the country for 90 days a year. S/he also needs to present tax clearance certificates from the NBR while crossing the immigration check posts before leaving the country.
Earlier, the home ministry had also undertaken an initiative for setting up booths at the immigration check-posts to prevent foreigners leaving the country without showing tax clearance certificates. But the move could not yield any results as the agencies concerned were yet to reach a consensus on this matter. Once the NBR chairman, at a meeting with NBR commissioners and all its members, instructed its officials to keep foreigners under special monitoring but no progress in this regard has ever been reported.
Citizens mostly from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan, South Korea and some European and African countries are working in the country, mostly illegally in connivance with their Bangladeshi employers under the very nose of law-enforcement authorities. But it is not really difficult for law enforcers to track travel document of foreigners just after their arrival at airports or land ports.   
The foreigners are taking full advantage of acute skill shortage in the country. Sadly, none in the country seems to be moving to promote skills needed by the entrepreneurs. The University Grants Commission (UGC), the statutory apex body in higher education, has already miserably failed to assess needs of industries and other sectors in the field of skilled manpower and set higher studies in that order.
As the UGC is to “supervise, maintain, promote and coordinate university education, it is also responsible for maintaining standard and quality in all the public and private universities in Bangladesh”. The UGC has to assess, according to its mandate, the needs of the public and private universities and advise the government on various issues related to higher skill development in the country.
To go by the UGC website claim, as the statutory apex body in the field of university education, its vision is to enhance and strengthen the quality of higher education. It is also to ensure high quality education in the public and private universities, keeping in view the needs and aspirations of the people and society. It is mandated to develop the universities as centres of excellence which in turn will produce trained and skilled manpower capable of resolving socio-economic problems and contribute to economic progress and prosperity of the country.
The UGC is also to organise and motivate the universities to act as change agents so that they can create new frontiers of skills through demand-driven and innovative research to cope with the rapidly changing globalised society. But the Commission, now manned politically, has completely failed to live up to the expectations.  
It is time that the UGC liaise with industries and other sectors and the Planning Commission, assess the needs of skilled personnel in the country and provide opportunities for hundreds of thousands of students pursuing higher studies under a time-bound programme. The government can take a stock of training facilities at home and oversee operation of the technical centres.
The most important task of all concerned should be to see that really capable engineers, technicians and other technical personnel pass their respective courses. Those institutions which merely sell certificates must be closed down forthwith. There can never be any compromise in quality. Any lapse in this regard will result in more drainage of foreign currencies from the country where hundreds of thousands of students undergo higher studies every year but without any positive result.  
arjayster@gmail.com