Training Allowances Cut: Election Commission, Finance Division at odds
A difference of opinion has emerged between the Election Commission and the Finance Division after the latter cut the training allowances of EC officials.
The EC, an independent constitutional body, said it will send a letter to the government explaining its position, sources at the commission said.
The EC in June this year sent a letter to the Finance Division detailing its guideline for the module and allowance rate of trainers.
In response, the division, in a recent letter, cancelled the provision of giving training allowances for the election commissioners including the CEC. It also scrapped the training allowances for the EC secretariat secretary and directorate general of the Electoral Training Institute (ETI).
The Finance Division also reduced the training allowances for EC Secretariat's additional secretary, joint secretary and others.
EC officials, however, said the Finance Division does not have the right to cancel or reduce the amount of honorarium fixed by the EC.
Election Commissioner Brigadier General (retd) Ahsan Habib Khan said that Section 7 (1) of the Election Commission Secretariat Act, 2009, guarantees the financial independence of the Election Commission.
The section says the government shall allocate a budget, in consideration of the proposal received from the Election Commission, for the expenditure of the Election Commission in each financial year.
And it shall not be necessary for the Election Commission to take the government's prior approval in case of expenditure from that allocated budget.
"The Election Commission will again write a letter to the Ministry of Finance highlighting its legal position," Ahsan Habib told this newspaper. It has to be checked whether the Finance division can change the EC proposal, he added.
Secretary of Election Commission Secretariat Jahangir Alam refused to make any comments regarding the issue.
The Office of the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) first raised the issue in March 2020, after detecting financial anomalies in the EC's expenditure on payment to its trainers ahead of the last parliamentary polls and upazila elections.
The CAG's objection involved more than Tk 7 crore over the training programme.
Electoral Training Institute officials said they usually provide training to the presiding officers, assistant presiding officers and polling officers ahead of national polls, and local government polls. In most cases, election commissioners and EC top officials provide the training.
The Daily Star collected a copy of the Finance Division letter to the EC sent in October.
EC guideline proposed a training allowance of Tk 7,500 for the CEC and other ECs for a 90-minute session. The Finance Division scrapped the allowance, saying they get certain benefits under the Privilege Act to perform their duties.
The EC proposed Tk 6,000 and Tk 5,000 as allowance for Course Director and Course Coordinator but the finance division scrapped those.
ETI officials said the CEC, ECs and top officials of the EC secretariat, including its secretary, conduct training as "special speakers", while the secretary and ETI DG as "course directors".
In the guideline, the EC proposed an allowance of Tk 5,000 for secretary, additional secretary and other officials of the same status for a one and half hours session. The Finance Division reduced the figure to Tk 3,000.
EC proposed for allowance of Tk 3,000 for joint secretary-level officials. The division reduced the figure to Tk 2,000.
The division also reduced the allowances for the trainees to Tk 500 from the proposed Tk 1000.
"If any trainers provide training in several sessions in a day, that trainers will get an allowance for a maximum of two sessions per day," said the Finance Division letter.
The CAG in its 2020 report observed: "It has also been seen that the same person collected allowances for different training sessions that took place at different corners of the country on the same day."
Several EC top officials confirmed that the audit objections were yet to be settled.
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