Politicisation and lack of transparency accelerate corruption in the Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED), according to a study of the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).The newly released study observes that apart from recruiting staff and formulating projects, the LGED implements the local government projects under “political consideration.”
TIB senior programme manager (Research and Policy Division) Shahjada M Akram and deputy programme manager Nahid Sharmin jointly released the study report at a discussion.
The TIB organised the discussion on ‘Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED): Problems of Good Governance and Way Forward’ at the Cirdap auditorium in the capital.
About the corruption in LGED, the report says every bidder has to provide a specific amount of money (about 8.5 percent to 10.5 percent of the total project amount) to the LGED officials as commission for releasing bills.
According to the LGED annual report, Tk 25,563 crore was released by the department in five fiscal years (2007-08 to 2011-12) and realised some Tk 2,172.855 crore to Tk 2684.115 crore as 8.5 percent to 10.5 percent commission on billed amounts.
The study says there is lack of transparency in the activities undertaken by the LGED under its manpower management. Transparency is not ensured in the bidding procedure, administration and project implementation.
“As no effective steps have been taken by the department to monitor its activities, there is no transparency in taking administrative decision, manpower management, field-level projects and logistic use,” it says.
The study report mentions that ‘corruption is institutionalised in the LGED due to political influence and for lack of good governance’.
Chaired by former adviser to caretaker government and TIB trustee board member M Hafizuddin Khan, the meeting was addressed, among others, by local government expert Dr Tofail Ahmed and Sujan secretary Badiul Alam Majumder, TIB executive director Dr Iftekharuzzaman, teacher of Dhaka University Prof Salauddin M Aminuzzaman, LGED additional chief engineer Abul Kalam Azad and TIB deputy executive director Dr Sumaiya Khair. – UNB
