Overseas workers' welfare fund spending under scrutiny
Naim-Ul-Karim | Saturday, 7 June 2008
Serious questions about the use of a welfare fund raised through fees collected by the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) from the Bangladeshis leaving the country to take up jobs abroad have surfaced.
The size of the fund is now estimated at Tk 5.0 billion
The fund meant for taking up programmes for the welfare of the expatriate workers was put into effect in 1992. The basic objectives behind building up the fund were to create of a large pool of skilled manpower adequately trained in trades that are in high demand abroad and provide compensation to the families of the workers in the event of their death abroad.
The issue of questionable use of the expatriate workers' welfare fund, according to Abdul Matin Chowdhury, Secretary of the Ministry of Expatriates' welfare and Overseas Employment, who also heads the committee responsible for managing the fund, is among a number of manpower sector irregularities now under investigation by the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC).
Allegations have it that the committee concerned has taken up projects having no relevance to basic objectives behind creation of the fund.
Instead of taking up any scheme for skill development, the management has invested an estimated Tk. 1.5 billion for the construction of 500 apartments in the city's posh Gulshan area for the non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs). But sources alleged that most of the apartments thus constructed had ended up in the hands of rich non-NRBs.
Besides, the ministry concerned is now constructing an 18-storied commercial compex at Elephant Road of Dhaka city. "We will use a large portion of the complex for the welfare of the workers," Chowdhury said.
While talking to the FE recently, the secretary of the manpower ministry refused to take responsibility of the money spent from the fund by his predecessors and promised to start a few "pragmatic" measures to provide skill development training to the overseas jobseekers. Answering a question, he said government's own training institutes are now imparting training to around 60,000 people a year.
Of the total fund, the BMET collected over Tk527 million in 2007 and Tk 268 million in 2006 from overseas job seekers. The collection in the first four months of the current year (January-April) stood at Tk395 million.
An official of the BMET said the fund now has an unspent amount of over Tk2.3 billion, alleging that a section of people is active again to spend the fund on some unproductive programmes to serve their vested interests.
Manpower sector insiders said Bangladesh might face a serious difficulty in exporting manpower to the Middle Eastern countries in near future as India, Pakistan and Nepal have taken up massive projects to produce more skilled manpower for meeting the future demand in the Middle East and other countries.
Within next few years, they said demand for unskilled manpower would come down to almost zero, creating a serious problem for Bangladesh which basically exports unskilled workforce.
"Number of offences done by Bangladeshi workers could also be easily minimized if the authorities concerned at least teach our workers about the need for upholding moral values, in addition to providing training," an official said.
Around 80 per cent of over 0.8 million workers left Dhaka taking up jobs abroad in 2007 were unskilled, according to BMET statistics.
Officials said the country's remittance earning from over 5.6 million Bangladeshis living and working abroad is likely to go up substantially if the government takes up programme to impart basic knowledge about banking transactions to the expatriate workers. Such knowledge would discourage them from using informal channels for remitting money back home.
The country received $5.649 billion worth of remittance during July-March period of fiscal 2007-08, marking a 29.54 per cent growth over that of the same period of the last fiscal, according to the central bank statistics.
The size of the fund is now estimated at Tk 5.0 billion
The fund meant for taking up programmes for the welfare of the expatriate workers was put into effect in 1992. The basic objectives behind building up the fund were to create of a large pool of skilled manpower adequately trained in trades that are in high demand abroad and provide compensation to the families of the workers in the event of their death abroad.
The issue of questionable use of the expatriate workers' welfare fund, according to Abdul Matin Chowdhury, Secretary of the Ministry of Expatriates' welfare and Overseas Employment, who also heads the committee responsible for managing the fund, is among a number of manpower sector irregularities now under investigation by the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC).
Allegations have it that the committee concerned has taken up projects having no relevance to basic objectives behind creation of the fund.
Instead of taking up any scheme for skill development, the management has invested an estimated Tk. 1.5 billion for the construction of 500 apartments in the city's posh Gulshan area for the non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs). But sources alleged that most of the apartments thus constructed had ended up in the hands of rich non-NRBs.
Besides, the ministry concerned is now constructing an 18-storied commercial compex at Elephant Road of Dhaka city. "We will use a large portion of the complex for the welfare of the workers," Chowdhury said.
While talking to the FE recently, the secretary of the manpower ministry refused to take responsibility of the money spent from the fund by his predecessors and promised to start a few "pragmatic" measures to provide skill development training to the overseas jobseekers. Answering a question, he said government's own training institutes are now imparting training to around 60,000 people a year.
Of the total fund, the BMET collected over Tk527 million in 2007 and Tk 268 million in 2006 from overseas job seekers. The collection in the first four months of the current year (January-April) stood at Tk395 million.
An official of the BMET said the fund now has an unspent amount of over Tk2.3 billion, alleging that a section of people is active again to spend the fund on some unproductive programmes to serve their vested interests.
Manpower sector insiders said Bangladesh might face a serious difficulty in exporting manpower to the Middle Eastern countries in near future as India, Pakistan and Nepal have taken up massive projects to produce more skilled manpower for meeting the future demand in the Middle East and other countries.
Within next few years, they said demand for unskilled manpower would come down to almost zero, creating a serious problem for Bangladesh which basically exports unskilled workforce.
"Number of offences done by Bangladeshi workers could also be easily minimized if the authorities concerned at least teach our workers about the need for upholding moral values, in addition to providing training," an official said.
Around 80 per cent of over 0.8 million workers left Dhaka taking up jobs abroad in 2007 were unskilled, according to BMET statistics.
Officials said the country's remittance earning from over 5.6 million Bangladeshis living and working abroad is likely to go up substantially if the government takes up programme to impart basic knowledge about banking transactions to the expatriate workers. Such knowledge would discourage them from using informal channels for remitting money back home.
The country received $5.649 billion worth of remittance during July-March period of fiscal 2007-08, marking a 29.54 per cent growth over that of the same period of the last fiscal, according to the central bank statistics.