How do we make public enterprises accountable?

Whether it is semi-controlled or self-censored media, corridor discussions or even Transparency International Bangladesh reports, we have been hearing about corruption in the public enterprises and inaction by the subsequent governments for the last many years.  

At Brac University, we once invited the then chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on public undertakings. Even the chairman himself expressed his dismay about audit delays in public enterprises for many years, with annual reports even being prepared too late, not depicting real pictures, long pending inaction against audit findings, or even no action against corruption by officials holding public-interest offices.

Our leading media, civil society members, senior officials of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), and even public representatives have been demanding critical scrutiny into financial irregularities unearthed by several public offices, including the government's own watchdog institution, the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (OCAG).

Irregularities in the Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) arrested our attention recently. The latest on the CAG list is Petrobangla.

According to a media report based on CAG findings presented in parliament in June, the state coffer has been robbed of nearly Tk 5,000 crore due to the irregularities around dozen companies under Petrobangla between 2014-15 and 2016-17 and in two companies of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), another alleged player, in 2013-14.

This was done through 19 counts of irregularities. These, though often heard, include purchasing goods and services at inflated prices, flouting procurement instructions of the finance ministry and the National Board of Revenue, and disregarding the Gas Sales Rules 2004 and 2014, Bangladesh Gas Act 2010, Public Procurement Act 2006, and Public Procurement Rules 2008. Recently, we were also surprised to see the banks where BPC parked its term deposits.

Of the near Tk 5,000 crore lost, Petrobangla's failure to deposit the national exchequer's portions of the VAT and supplementary duties collected from gas distribution companies alone cost the Treasury more than Tk 4,500 crore. The outstanding amount reportedly remains unpaid to date. One may ask: Where did the money go? Can such a huge sum of money simply vanish? If not the state coffers, whose coffers did it go to? Petrobangla did offer some justifications about its usage, none too convincing though.

Before Petrobangla, we've had CAG investigation reports on the BTCL, the Directorate General of Food, the Directorate General of Health Services, public hospitals and other healthcare facilities, the ministries of agriculture and fisheries and livestock, and of course the BPC, the last so immersed in corruption that even the parliamentary standing committee boss was shocked. Their inclusion is by no means selective, nor is their mismanagement a total shock, given how frequently the media reports on such corruption.

Added to the above is: How are these quasi-govt institutions being run? Who is being appointed to these important public-interest institutions? How is their accountability being reviewed and ensured?

Maybe we need few public institutions to draw balance with profit-focused private institutions, but of course, not so corrupt, inefficient or personal rent-seeking public officials running inept public institutions. It also warrants a thorough over-hauling of the archaic model being used to run public institutions.

The author is an economic analyst.