Is it deliberate oversight or connivance?

To say it is a mere irregularity would not really portray the scope of corruption by a group of people to pocket government money meant for the poor. This has added to the ever growing list of people in place of responsibility, most often local elected representatives, displaying their abject venality spurred by greed, depriving those very people who had voted him or her to office. 

As reported in this paper yesterday, fake NID numbers were used in government cash assistance lists for tea workers in Moulvibazar, not one or two or three, but 72 times. The list was drawn up to disburse money under a scheme of the Department of Social Services to improve impoverished tea workers' living standards. Each of the 2,113 tea workers of 22 tea gardens in Kamalganj upazila of Moulvibazar, were to receive Tk 5,000 cheque. While many non-tea garden workers were included in the list, many genuine workers were not. And according to a local UP member, he was not involved at all in preparing the list. Predictably, the mistakes have been blamed on "technical issues".

It is quite obvious that a coterie of people have connived to make the fake list. But what we are surprised at is that it escaped the eyes of those who were supposed to scrutinise, vet and finally approve the list. And it is a long chain along which everyone failed to notice the error!

Since the beginning of the pandemic crisis the government has undertaken several poor-friendly schemes to help the most needy. Reportedly, the ACC has started investigation against some 94 union parishad chairmen and members for their alleged involvement in corruption and irregularities during the Covid-19 relief programmes based on media reports.

Such corrupt people must be dealt with quickly as deterrence. Many of them have been caught red-handed, which merits immediate charge sheet and trial. Unless these people are behind bars the government's social programmes are likely to fail. But that doesn't absolve the government functionaries from their responsibility of exercising proper supervision. Failure to do so should also merit similar punishment as the perpetrators.