Corruption, political bias hampered govt’s cash assistance programme

A recent survey by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has revealed a shocking picture of the government's cash incentive programme which was initiated at the beginning of the pandemic to provide financial assistance to 50 lakh poor families—those who lost their livelihoods and were worst affected by Covid-19. TIB took interviews of 1,050 beneficiaries of the programme and found that 69 percent of them were yet to receive anything, while 18.9 percent bribed to be included in the list and around 10 percent had to prove their political identity to be enlisted. The anti-graft watchdog held another survey on the government's OMS (open market sales) programmes and found that 36.8 percent of OMS cardholders got less rice than they were supposed to, while 92 people said they never managed to get any rice even after having the cards. According to the TIB findings, 79.2 percent of the people eligible for cash assistance and 65.7 percent of the OMS cardholders said they faced corrupt practices from the local parliamentarians, chairmen, Union Parishad members, councillors or mayors.

The government's cash assistance programme faced many challenges from the very beginning. It was reported in this daily that many of the beneficiaries' national identification (NID) numbers did not match the ones on the Election Commission's database, and several other gross anomalies were also found when the finance ministry cross-checked the names of the beneficiaries. There were names of government officials, pensioners, and beneficiaries of other social safety net schemes on the list. Names of people who owned Tk 5 lakh in savings certificates were also on the list, while around three lakh names were included more than once.

We expressed our concerns during that time over the NID mishap and other anomalies in making the list, and urged the government to solve the problem immediately and disburse the funds to people who were starving. During that time, TIB also demanded exemplary punishment for those involved in irregularities in preparing lists of beneficiaries. However, as it seems now, no amount of criticism could change the situation on the ground. According to the finance ministry sources, the project was stopped after funds were handed to 35 lakh beneficiaries, whereas the TIB survey found that 69 percent of people surveyed did not receive anything. So how many people actually benefitted from the scheme?

We think the government should immediately work out a plan to verify details of the beneficiaries who could not be given any cash support and provide them with the promised assistance. At the same time, the lists of all beneficiaries of social safety net programmes must be made public and published in the government websites, as recommended by TIB. The inefficiency and corruption in carrying out the social safety net programmes have exposed the many administrative challenges currently facing the government. We hope the authorities will address these issues urgently.