Alternative Hasina govt walled by bureaucrats!

Staff Correspondent: Sheikh Hasina brought huge changes in the boundaries of power in the last decade and a half. In this, the bureaucrats are making laws, accepting and implementing development projects, and taking all the important decisions of the government. Ministers are following the path shown to them, performing the functions of the government. As a result, the bureaucrats became Sheikh Hasina’s party forces. And in terms of promotion or appointment to important positions, only his trusted bureaucrats got priority. In every crisis of government, bureaucrats were at the forefront of policy decision-making and politicians were at the margins. Bureaucrats not only make the final decisions, but also implement most of those decisions. Although traditionally politicians are supposed to do that. Even during the pandemic, the bureaucrats have taken almost all the decisions without consulting the political leaders, from the lockdown to the distribution of relief to the affected and the closure of educational institutions and other institutions.
What is bureaucracy? Literally, bureaucracy is a system of government in which permanent government officials manage all the activities of the government through division of responsibilities. Bureaucrats are not representative of the people or elected by vote. As a result, even if the political government changes, bureaucrats do not lose their posts. The English equivalent of Bureaucracy is Bureaucracy. And the root of bureaucracy is from the French word. The French word bureau means desk or office. The Greek word kratos means rule or political power. The term was first coined by the French economist Jacques Cléande Marie Vincent de Gourney in the mid-seventeenth century. He coined the term as satire.
Although bureaucracy in Bangladesh became the alternative government system of Sheikh Hasina. Bureaucrats were the masterminds of many illegal activities of the Sheikh Hasina government, including rigging in national and local government elections, corruption in the name of implementing development projects, looting in the banking and power sectors. Most of these bureaucrats have large assets outside the country and second citizenships. As a result, many people are living permanently outside the country after retirement from work. On the other hand, many of the controversial bureaucrats are still in office. Although the interim government canceled the contractual appointments of some, most of the bureaucrats are still employed. Besides, some who retired are getting new postings. One of them is Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury. He was the former finance secretary and former chief auditor and controller (CAG) of the government. Yesterday, he was appointed as the chairman of the state-owned Sonali Bank on contract for three years.
The reserve was stolen when Muslim Chowdhury was secretary of the finance department. Besides, as CAG, it was not possible to release any kind of government funds without his signature. That is, he cannot avoid the responsibility of Sheikh Hasina’s government’s corruption. Besides, he took the initiative to hand over the management of Chittagong port to foreigners in public-private partnership (PPP) and universal pension scheme is also called his brain child. Ahmad Kaykaus, who was Sheikh Hasina’s trusted bureaucrat. He served as Secretary of Power Department for a long time. He was one of the owners of corruption in giving licenses to more than half a hundred power plants without tender and in giving these licenses. The trusted aide of State Power Minister Nasrul Hamid is also said to be the mastermind behind the power deal with Adani. He was later promoted as Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister but had direct control over the Power Department.
In addition to the official passport of Bangladesh, this official, who holds a US passport, last served as the alternate executive director of the World Bank in Bangladesh. Despite allegations that he has huge wealth in the United States, there has never been an investigation into the corruption of this bureaucrat trusted by Sheikh Hasina.
Shahidul Haque was one of Sheikh Hasina’s trusted foreign secretaries. In 2012, he started serving as Additional Foreign Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. On January 10, 2013, he was appointed as the 25th Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh. Although he was initially made acting secretary, he was promoted to the post of secretary on July 19 the same year and as senior secretary on July 30, 2018. Although his tenure expired on December 30, 2018, the government appointed him on contract for another year in the same post. He retired when his contract expired on December 30, 2019.
Sheikh Hasina’s trusted foreign secretary is the mastermind of many agreements against the interests of the country. He had a direct role in determining the transshipment agreement concluded with India, use of Chittagong and Mongla ports, use of Ashuganj seaport, nominal transshipment charges. After retirement, he was appointed as a member of the advisory board of the Awami League’s research cell, Center for Research and Information (CRI). At that time, he also gave various advices on foreign policy to the government.
Abu Hena Md. Rahmatul Munim was removed after taking charge of the interim government. Earlier he was the Chairman of National Board of Revenue (NBR). He also served as the chairman of BPC. As the chairman of NBR. Munim harassed Yunus in one income tax case after another. Apart from this, some big power plants including Summit, S Alam, Uniq, Beximco have given hundreds of crores of tax breaks irregularly. Besides, Munim has committed hundreds of crores of corruption by illegally giving tax benefits to some big companies, assisting in money laundering and tax evasion.
Md. Jahangir Alam was one of Sheikh Hasina’s trusted bureaucrats as an Election Commission (EC) secretary, he was posted to the Public Security Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs as a reward for his successful handling of national election rigging duties. After serving as joint secretary and additional secretary, he was made secretary on October 27, 2022. He was sent into compulsory retirement after the fall of the government in the student movement. Although the video of the student killing the student went viral, he was never brought to justice. Meanwhile, Kabir bin Anwar was Sheikh Hasina’s trusted cabinet secretary. Despite various allegations against him at various times, Sheikh Hasina never took any disciplinary action against him. Kabir Bin Anwar is one of those who have become the owners of hundreds of crores of rupees by using the title of Awami League. He has built mountains of wealth in different parts of the country including Dhaka, Gazipur, Saint Martin, Cox’s Bazar, Sirajganj with the money earned through corruption.
Besides, Kabir Bin Anwar involved his relatives in the contracting business while he was the Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office and Project Director of A2I. Through them, he has built a mountain of wealth by allocating money in the name of various projects. Abdur Rauf Talukder resigned from the post of governor after the fall of the government in the student-java movement. There are various allegations against this bureaucrat including giving various opportunities to the debtors, destroying the discipline of the central bank, bringing the reserve from a record high to the bottom, hiding the account of the reserve, banning the entry of journalists to the central bank, almost stopping the audit activities in the private banks. Before this, he also played a controversial role as the former finance secretary.
Helaluddin Ahmad was another warrior of the government’s vote rigging. He was one of the owners of rigging in various elections as a reward for Sheikh Hasina’s trust as EC Secretary. As a reward for successfully fulfilling this responsibility, he was made the Secretary of Local Government Department (LGD) in 2019. He was made Senior Secretary in 2020. After his retirement in 2022, he was appointed as a member of the Public Service Commission (PSC) for five years. He is currently holding that position.