Cabinet committee on economy sitting idle at times of crisis

Given the worst economic crisis in recent memory, one would think the cabinet committee on economic affairs headed by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal would be engrossed in permutations and computations for a way. In reality, they were all missing in action.

The committee, which has 12 ministers and state ministers as members, is tasked with eight specific focal areas that include an evaluation of the country's economic situation and act accordingly.

The cabinet secretary, principal secretary to the prime minister, the Bangladesh Bank governor and several secretary-level officials are attached to the committee to provide necessary assistance to the members. Besides, the committee can invite any minister or any secretary for further assistance.

The Daily Star has obtained the committee's meeting agendas for the last two and half months and the fragile state of the economy did not feature in any of them.

For instance, on October 9, the committee approved the purchase of 261 luxury vehicles for the district commissioners and upazila nirbahi officers amid the economic crisis, a decision that was later suspended by the government.

On September 25, the committee discussed the proposal of widening a road that connects Barisal and Laxmipur, and on September 18, two routine works of the food ministry and the directorate general of health services were discussed.

August 28's agenda included only one proposal for the food ministry's public procurement.

On August 21, the committee approved a direct purchase method for releasing and circulating the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's biopic 'Mujib: The Making of a Nation' in all movie theatres. The agenda also includes two proposals from the energy and housing and public works ministries.

"I never saw any discussion on the overall economic situation in the meetings of this committee that I attended in the last several years," Planning Minister MA Mannan told The Daily Star.

The committee addressed the issues that are mentioned in the agenda, he said.

Asked whether the committee has failed to live up to its mandate, Mannan said: "It would have been better if they could do it. However, that does not mean we have suffered a lot due to their inactivity."

The committee mainly discusses important government purchases, said Farhad Hossain, the state minister for public administration, while failing to recall the last time the committee assessed and evaluated Bangladesh's economic situation.

"The finance ministry and the Bangladesh Bank regularly review the country's economic situation -- the committee does not discuss these things," he added.

"The committee is headed by political leaders. If they are not interested in doing their jobs properly, the bureaucrats and officials do not want to take much responsibility," said an additional secretary who works closely with the committee. He asked not to be named to speak candidly on the issue.

The head of the committee -- Kamal -- is very irregular with his office attendance, he said. "His officials hardly find him in the ministry. How can we expect something creative and constructive from this committee?"

Kamal did not attend the Executive Committee of National Economic Affairs meetings regularly and he missed more than half of the sessions in this parliament.

"It is not that these issues were not discussed in the meetings of the committee. If needed, we sometimes discuss various economic issues on an ad hoc basis by going beyond the scheduled topics," Kamal told The Daily Star.

He suggested the correspondent talk to the cabinet division, which sets the agendas of the committee's meetings.