Members won't get ministry's fund for foreign trips

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has instructed that members of the standing committee on expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry may visit abroad using the parliament secretariat's fund, not the ministry’s fund.

The expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry yesterday at a meeting informed the Jatiya Sangsad committee about the PMO instruction, meeting sources confirmed it to The Daily Star.

According to the working paper of the meeting of the parliamentary committee, PMO said, “Expenses of honourable parliament members can be met from the parliament secretariat's fund.”

The standing committee members also asked the ministry to accompany one or two MPs with the ministry’s officials whenever they go abroad.

The ministry later sent a summary to PMO about the proposal of the parliamentary watchdog about the visit of MPs to get first-hand experiences of different countries' activities in expatriate welfare and overseas employment. In response, PMO sent the instruction to the ministry.

It has become a common practice for members of different standing committees to go on foreign trips using the fund of the respective ministries. Some members of the committee yesterday expressed disappointment over the PMO instruction, meeting sources said.

Meanwhile, at yesterday’s meeting, the committee was informed that the government has taken punitive actions against 106 recruiting agencies between 2004 and 2017 for their involvement in irregularities in recruiting manpower and defaming the country’s image. The actions included cancelling licenses, imposing fine, and confiscating deposit money of the agencies.

At the meeting, the ministry was asked to ensure that Bangladeshi expatriates do not face any harassment at airports while coming home, especially when they retrieve their luggage.

Awami League MP Nurul Majid Mamun Humayun chaired the meeting.