The government is taking a tough line on reining in irregularities, corruption, wastage and weak financial management. To ensure transparency and accountability, it has issued directives for closer scrutiny of spending and procurement, and Prime Minister Tarique Rahman himself has directed that swift action be taken whenever complaints of irregularity or corruption arise.
Development and non-development spending and procurement are to be monitored, and project directors could be relieved of their posts immediately in the case of serious complaints, according to the Finance Division. The Public Procurement Act is to be strictly followed. The Prime Minister’s Office recently issued such directives to all ministries and divisions.
According to policymakers, the aim is not merely to cut spending but to narrow the scope for corruption, stop waste and establish sustainable discipline in the financial sector. The government believes that curbing corruption and waste will ease inflationary pressure. Finance Ministry sources said that in the past, approving spending without verifying genuine need, buying goods and services at inflated prices, escalating project costs and delays had put extra financial pressure on the government.
The new directive stresses assessing the necessity, rationale, market price, alternatives and likely outcomes before every expense, officials said, and multi-level review and approval for large expenditures is being strengthened. Ensuring transparency in public procurement would help control a major area of corruption, they said, with instructions covering tender evaluation, checks on suppliers’ capacity, market-price analysis and adherence to financial rules. Internal audit, financial oversight and digital monitoring are also being made more effective.
Economists said strengthening governance in the financial sector mattered more than austerity itself. Ensuring spending control, accountability and effective monitoring would reduce waste of public money, said economist Dr. Zahir Hossain, improve efficiency in project implementation and allow taxpayers’ money to be used more properly. Financial-sector reform would succeed only when the same rules applied equally across all institutions and irregularities were dealt with swiftly, he said.
A Finance Division circular issued on July 8 set out several austerity measures for ministries, divisions, directorates, autonomous bodies and state-owned enterprises, limiting unnecessary spending and imposing tighter financial controls on procurement and development expenditure. Under the directive, purchases of new motor vehicles, vessels and aircraft are suspended for now, government-funded foreign trips have been limited, and new building construction from the operating budget has been halted; projects that have made significant progress may be completed on the basis of special approval. The government says the aim is not to halt development but to ensure the maximum use of public money in priority sectors.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report