Unhealthy BSMMU affairs
Friday, 3 August 2007
INCIDENTS of too many corruption and irregularities in the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), reportedly detected recently by a probe committee, raise concern about its state of affairs. The 250-page investigation report contains 80 recommendations. While many of the alleged corruption incidents involved manipulated purchase of medical instruments at bloated prices and illegally enhancing personal benefits by some of the administrative officials at its higher tiers, there is one finding which tells about running a fiefdom in the name of an academic institution in the BSMMU. It is about recruiting 3600 teachers and other employees in the last five years against the sanctioned posts of 1600.
The probe committee members and many of the teachers of the BSMMU have reportedly expressed their fear that the recommendations of the committee might be diluted if these are placed before the university syndicate, which was formed during the rule of the erstwhile elected government. They have a point for having this apprehension. If the current syndicate functioned well and its members would have taken their tasks seriously, many of the alleged irregularities could not have at all taken place. Either most of the members of the syndicate took their jobs leisurely and non-seriously or they acted as willing cohorts and kept their eyes closed to the alleged continued wrongdoings of the derailed management of the BSMMU. If the same syndicate now takes the recommendations into cognizance and apportions responsibilities for the wrongdoings, the possibility is that its majority members would condone themselves for their lapses in regard to enforcing discipline in the university management. They may indeed dilute the recommendations, as feared, to prove that no major lapse occurred in its management.
The government reportedly ordered the university authorities for probing into the irregularities of the last five years. Instead, the BSMMU administration asked the probe committee to look into irregularities of the last nine years and to frame its recommendations. The deviation, which extended the mandate of the committee, seems to have been done to uncover whether irregularities were also previously committed, since the Institute of Post-graduate Medicine and Research (IPGM&R) had been transformed into the BSMMU. The detection at the moment of whether or not the derailment of the medical university has a historic root would not be out of place if it is seriously intended that the house should be set in order creating examples of cleansing to deter its mismanagement in the future.
Partisan attitude in selecting trainees for higher medical education, divisive recruitment practices in a unlawful deviation from the standard rules, which suggested gang spirit, and widespread corruption inside the BSMMU have been serious matters of anxiety in the medical professional circle and among the conscious section of the people since long. As it is the apex institute for medical education in the country, the reflections of its disorder were having adverse effects in ramified forms in the medical colleges, among both teachers and students, and also on the health services of the country. For the obvious reasons, the move to probe into the disorder of the BSMMU was well conceived. The recommendations of the probe committee should be considered at the highest level not only for enforcement of proper accountability but also for being able to assess what needs to be done by the government to root out and preclude disorder.
The probe committee members and many of the teachers of the BSMMU have reportedly expressed their fear that the recommendations of the committee might be diluted if these are placed before the university syndicate, which was formed during the rule of the erstwhile elected government. They have a point for having this apprehension. If the current syndicate functioned well and its members would have taken their tasks seriously, many of the alleged irregularities could not have at all taken place. Either most of the members of the syndicate took their jobs leisurely and non-seriously or they acted as willing cohorts and kept their eyes closed to the alleged continued wrongdoings of the derailed management of the BSMMU. If the same syndicate now takes the recommendations into cognizance and apportions responsibilities for the wrongdoings, the possibility is that its majority members would condone themselves for their lapses in regard to enforcing discipline in the university management. They may indeed dilute the recommendations, as feared, to prove that no major lapse occurred in its management.
The government reportedly ordered the university authorities for probing into the irregularities of the last five years. Instead, the BSMMU administration asked the probe committee to look into irregularities of the last nine years and to frame its recommendations. The deviation, which extended the mandate of the committee, seems to have been done to uncover whether irregularities were also previously committed, since the Institute of Post-graduate Medicine and Research (IPGM&R) had been transformed into the BSMMU. The detection at the moment of whether or not the derailment of the medical university has a historic root would not be out of place if it is seriously intended that the house should be set in order creating examples of cleansing to deter its mismanagement in the future.
Partisan attitude in selecting trainees for higher medical education, divisive recruitment practices in a unlawful deviation from the standard rules, which suggested gang spirit, and widespread corruption inside the BSMMU have been serious matters of anxiety in the medical professional circle and among the conscious section of the people since long. As it is the apex institute for medical education in the country, the reflections of its disorder were having adverse effects in ramified forms in the medical colleges, among both teachers and students, and also on the health services of the country. For the obvious reasons, the move to probe into the disorder of the BSMMU was well conceived. The recommendations of the probe committee should be considered at the highest level not only for enforcement of proper accountability but also for being able to assess what needs to be done by the government to root out and preclude disorder.