The interim government mulls evaluating inflated cost of mega projects by engaging third party to assess misuse of public money through political influence and picking up illogical schemes.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting on the country’s economic state held at the Chief Adviser’s Office (CAO) on Monday with Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus in the chair, said his Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam.
“There was an observation that on an average, all development projects taken in the last 15 years were overvalued by about 70 percent using political influence,” Alam said.
The cos escalation coupled with selection of unnecessary projects led to about $14-24 billion waste of public money, he added.
The meeting discussed how the mega projects would be reevaluated through the third party and how the country’s economy would be accelerated.
Giving an example, Alam said, “The cost of a metro rail project was $5.2 billion. ADB has assessed that $50 million can be saved here. There are ongoing discussions regarding this (third party), and it was discussed in the meeting.”
The meeting also decided to introduce e-filing at its all offices aiming to make its tasks smoother and curb grafts.
Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, Industries Adviser Adilur Rahman Khan, Planning and Education Adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud, Commerce Adviser Sheikh Bashir Uddin, Food Adviser Ali Imam Majumder, Principal Secretary to the Chief Adviser Md Siraj Uddin Mia, BIDA Executive Chairman Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun, Finance Division Secretary Dr Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder and Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Ahsan H Mansur were present, among others, at the meeting.
Briefing media about the decisions of the meeting at the Foreign Service Academy after the meeting, Shafiqul Alam said, many government offices have no e-filing system and those offices are running manually, making the government’s decision-making process slow.
So, Alam said, the Chief Adviser instructed all concerned to accelerate the e-filing process in all government offices.
Citing the examples of other countries, he said the e-filing helps bring down corruption to a minimal level.
The press secretary said the European Union (EU) has informed Bangladesh how Estonia checked corruption by introducing e-filing system and they want to share the Estonia’s experience with Bangladesh.
Replying to a question, he said if the e-fling is introduced, the files of the government works could be monitored and tracked.
Chief Adviser’s Senior Assistant Press Secretary Foyez Ahammad and Assistant Press Secretary Suchismita Tithi were present.
