Luxury cars for future ministers

Old habits die hard. A section of the bungling bureaucracy inherits this element much like people naturally inheriting the deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) from their ancestors. Or, how could the public administration ministry submit a proposal for purchasing luxury cars for the cabinet ministers who would take over following the next election slated to be held early next year? What is particularly intriguing is that the first such proposal placed for consideration was rejected by the finance ministry in the face of public outcry. This time the proposal for procurement reportedly of the sport utility vehicles (SUVs) made is even more outrageous because of much higher expenditure on those cars.
The local chapter of the Berlin-based Transparency International has rightly questioned the motive that has prompted the ministry concerned to raise an issue quite irrelevant right at this moment. At a time the implementation of the annual development programme (ADP) is the lowest in 15 years with 12 ministries and divisions reportedly failing to spend a single taka in the first month of the current financial year, this bureaucratic overture targeted to appease future ministers smacks of cronyism that became a deplorable hallmark of mutual collaboration between the cabinet and the civil service during the past regimes. In the past turbulent year, the expenditure stood at 49.08 per cent of the revised ADP outlay.
This is understandable but this year is different. Planning Adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud also expressed his displeasure, saying, "This year, things should be moving fast. Last year's excuses should no longer apply". Had a reasonable portion of the ADP allocation been spent on infrastructure development and projects, employment would get generated.
Sure enough, there are more pressing issues such as the law and order situation, setting reform agenda as much as the interim government can do and creating conditions for holding a free, fair and peaceful election. Austerity also emerges as a most viable option for the government. High inflation has been forcing more people of the lower segments of society to move below the poverty line. Rising unemployment is also taking its heavy toll.
Contrary to people's expectation of exemplary short-term measures with potential broad-based adoption by the next elected government, the civil servants feel no qualm about raising and extending the privileges of people in power at the expense of the common people. The interim government is also to blame for its overreliance on the bureaucracy. If the July-August uprising did not elevate itself to a revolution with specific agenda stipulating people-oriented socio-economic programmes, it had given ample opportunities to dismantle the bureaucratic stranglehold in favour of a welfare state.
However, the radical reforms that envisage the well-beings of the common people have been missing ever since the interim government took over. Privileged coteries ---both civil and military ---were in charge of the fluid situation and the student leaders who spearheaded the uprising now seem to have lost the steam. They have failed to bring about a manifesto spelling out the salient features of their demand in order to protect and preserve public interests.
This explains why the bureaucracy can dare take an elitist approach and brazenly propose purchase of luxury cars for would-be ministers. The TIB has roundly condemned this move and even rightly asked for an investigation into this overenthusiastic appeasement ploy in advance. TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman has also raised the legal provision in this matter. He has categorically mentioned, "The type of transport a minister is entitled to is clearly stated in Section 6 (a) of The Ministers, Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers (Remuneration and Privileges) Act, 1973". A minister is given a car for round-the-clock use but not the luxury type of Toyota Land Cruisers. This is in violation of the law of the land. Those behind the move should be identified and made accountable for initiating the move not once but twice.
The civil servants have time and again proved they are not amenable to any new idea; instead they are habituated to defending their old colonial tradition no matter if people's rights are sacrificed in the process. It is time they changed themselves to rise up to people's expectation.

nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com