Sorry tale of TR and FFW

Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu's allegation about massive irregularities in 'Test Relief' (TR) and 'Food for Works' (FFW) programmes involving the lawmakers had stirred up a real hornet's nest. Instantly, he came under attack from all directions. To assuage the anger on the part of members belonging to both treasury and opposition in parliament, the minister expressed regret for his statement on the issue.
The minister might have withdrawn his remarks coming under pressure, but popular perception about both the government programnmes, designed to help poor and people in distress in rural areas, is not anyway palatable.
It is widely believed that most part of the resources allocated under those programmes ends up in the pockets of ruling party men and officials involved in allocation and distribution of the same.
The irregularities, however, are nothing unique or regime-specific. Those are as old as the days when the programmes were initiated in the pre-liberation days. But with the passage of time the intensity of corruption has only increased. Now it is being done in the open at local levels and also at the nerve centre of the country's administration.  
A Bangla contemporary ran a special story other day on the state of affairs with TR and FFW programmes highlighting the irregularities in allocation and distribution of food grains under both the programmes at all levels. The special projects implemented under the two safety net programmes of the government in the last financial year (2015-16) reportedly took the level of corruption to a new height. The government allocated 125,000 metric tonnes of rice and wheat under special projects and most part of the allocations vanished before reaching the target population. Illegal transactions involving the allocation letters, allegedly, had taken place in the corridor of the ministry concerned. There are allegations galore also about misappropriation of food grains by the upazila parishads and ruling party men at the grassroots.
The use of allocations made against projects under regular TR and FFW programmes has never been perfect. A good part of resources is embezzled at different levels. But special projects have become very effective vehicles for plundering government food grains by a section of people. A strong network of unscrupulous officials and contractors is now in operation with a view to gobbling up allocations made in the name of special projects. Some lawmakers are reported to have complained about forgery of 'demand order' (DO) letters using their names.  Special allocations are made against fake projects belonging to non-existent organisations only to devour the same.
Both TR and FFW are two major constituents of the government's safety net programmes that, among others, offer temporary employment to the rural poor. The impact of the programmes is taken into account while estimating head-count poverty. But if the projects are not implemented, the resources allocated against the same do not leave any impact on poverty situation in the real sense. Yet officially the outcome of the resource allocations made against TR and FFW is, notionally, taken into account while assessing the poverty situation.
The problems encountered in making available the resources allocated under various public sector welfare programmes to the target groups at the bottom rung of society have been identified long ago. The international and donor agencies have mentioned in a number of studies the weaknesses of the safety net as well as other programmes designed to benefit the poor and low income people. But instead of showing any sign of improvement, the situation has rather aggravated in recent years with political interference and greed factors becoming more prominent than before in the allocation and distribution of resources under safety net programmes.
The government, according to Finance Minister AMA Muhith, spends funds equivalent to nearly 2.2 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and about 13 per cent of the total budgetary allocations for the current financial year on various safety net programmes.
In his budget speech the finance minister informed parliament of the formulation of the 'National Social Security Strategy' to make the social safety net system befitting for a 'middle income' country. He also promised to 'overhaul the entire transfer programme' with a view to mitigating life cycle risks faced by poor and marginalised people.
The allocation of 13 per cent of the budgetary resources for safety net programmes is a remarkable progress. Finding out such a large volume of resources is not an easy task. But far more important job for the government is to ensure the distribution of the allocated resources among the members of the target groups. The government does need to think loudly whether the objectives of its safety net programmes are being fulfilled. The way corruption and political interference are dominating the allocation and distribution of resources under the safety net programmes, gives one ample reason to believe otherwise. So, the overall situation demands suo moto intervention by the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) since the ongoing developments involving TR and FFW concern the poor most.
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