Trips only to waste taxpayers’ money

At least 39 officials of the civil aviation ministry and Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) made over 50 foreign trips in fiscal 2021-22 spending around Tk 1.5 crore of taxpayers' money despite a government restriction. 

The officials include Civil Aviation Secretary Mokammel Hossain and CAAB Chairman Air Vice Marshal M Mafidur Rahman, according to a list placed by the ministry before a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee concerned on Monday.

The Daily Star has obtained a copy of the document, which says most of the trips were made to attend seminars, conferences, workshops and dialogues. Some were even to enjoy airshows or product demonstrations.

In the wake of the financial crisis stemming from the coronavirus outbreak, the government had ordered abandoning all routine foreign tours except for those involving emergencies.

On July 1 last year, the finance ministry issued a circular on this, suspending 50 percent allocation for tours, saying the money can only be spent for unavoidable purposes.

The government took the decision on travel allocations in the development and operating budget of all government, semi-government, autonomous and other organisations in the fiscal year to ensure the best use of limited wealth to tackle the Covid impacts.

Yet the officials made the trips, which apparently could have been avoided to save the public money.

For example, CAAB Chairman Mafidur Rahman, who ranked top among all the officials in terms of the number of trips, went to Dubai to enjoy an airshow in 2021. This year, he flew to attend the exhibition titled "Wings of India 2022."

He visited seven countries in total -- Spain, France, the UAE, Sri Lanka, India, Saudi Arabia, and Canada -- spending around Tk 27 lakh.

The CAAB boss visited Spain twice -- first on the occasion of the annual general meeting of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), a representative body of companies that provide air traffic control, and the second one for the World ATM Congress.

He went to France to attend a product demonstration and Sri Lanka for the South Asia Steering Committee meeting of Cooperative Development of Operational Safety and Continuing Airworthiness Programme (COSCAP).

He also visited Canada and Saudi Arabia for the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) election and Future Aviation Forum respectively.

Mokammel Hossain, secretary of the civil aviation ministry, made five trips to Canada, Spain, France and the UAE, spending at least Tk 24 lakh.

He visited the UAE on February 10 to 13 this year to attend a seminar on "Explore Mujib's Bangladesh: A hidden gem of tourism in South Asia" and side events. The secretary also travelled to Canada for the ICAO election.

On his Spain trip October 25 to 28, 2021, Mokammel attended the general meeting of CANSO and World ATM Conference.

From October 29 to November 2 the same year, he visited France to attend a product demonstration by Thales, a multinational company that designs, develops and manufactures electrical systems as well as devices and equipment for the aerospace, defence, transportation and security sectors.

He again visited France on November 9 to 12 as a member of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's entourage.

Sukesh Kumar Sarkar, additional secretary of the ministry, visited the UAE to attend a factory witness test. Details of this trip or cost were not mentioned in the paper.

On April 3, 2022, he visited the US to join Bangladesh-US partnership dialogue at a cost of Tk 76,1746.

Shyamoli Nobi, a deputy secretary, visited Barcelona in Spain from October 25 to 28, 2021, to attend "Future of Tourism World Summit".

Ahmed Jamil, another deputy secretary, flew to Ireland and England from March 10 to March 16 this year for a factory acceptance test of a certain equipment. The cost of his visit was not mentioned in the list.

Abdul Jalil, the personal secretary of the state minister for civil aviation, visited Belgium to attend a seminar on "Gastronomy Tourism." He made a nine-day trip to India in April 2022 to attend an event of the commerce ministry at a cost of Tk 1.85 lakh.

State Minister M Mahbub Ali and CAAB Chairman Mafidur Rahman could not be reached over phones despite several attempts. There was also no response to text messages sent to get their versions on this issue.

Transparency International Bangladesh Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said these are examples of how the government officials holding responsible positions entrusted to implement government rules and regulations violate the same without any qualms.

"It not only shows their treatment of publicly funded foreign visits under whatever pretext as an opportunity more for private gain than to serve professional purposes, but also their lack of sense of responsibility for compliance," he also said.

"More importantly, while the circular that has been violated was clearly intended absolutely justifiably to ensure highest value for use of public resources, they have shown unabashed nonchalance about wasting taxpayers' money by indulging in foreign visits that served anything but public interest," said Iftekharuzzaman.

"Such violations go on unabated and important government circulars like these are rendered useless because both the two categories of violators -- those who manage to be beneficiaries as participants and those who approve such visits - are hardly ever held to account."