Integrity does not deserve persecution

Recently, three admin shuffles took place in one week. A total of 28 districts got new DCs. While placing preferred officials in strategic roles is a routine practice for any regime before the national election, there was one transfer that stood out from the rest: that of former Manikganj Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Abdul Latif. To most, his transfer to the Economic Relations Division (ERD) seemed like a punishing move, given his role in uncovering the health minister's alleged attempt to swindle public money.

For context, it has been reported that Minister Zahid Maleque, along with his immediate family members, purchased 20.65 acres of land in Meghshimul area in Jagir union of Manikganj Sadar upazila. This was done just 20 days before the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved a Tk 1,905.26 crore project in April last year to relocate the only government-owned drug manufacturing company there.

While one can always buy a piece of land in any part of the country, the issue lies elsewhere. Particularly, the way portions of the land in Meghshimul were bought, filled up to be re-categorised, prices inflated, and then sold off emits a foetid whiff. A company owned by the minister himself had bought 6.39 acres of the land in Meghshimul, his son's company bought another 3.12 acres, and the minister's cousin bought 5.54 acres. But the lion's share of 11.14 acres was bought by his daughter, which she later donated to her husband showing an inflated price (compared to the mouza rate).

Neither the health minister nor any of his family members kept the land they'd bought in Meghshimul. Being farsighted, they filled up the land, converted it to homestead category from being under wetland and agriculture category – following all relevant procedures – , inflated the price of the land to Tk 120,000 per decimal (the health minister gave a DO letter to the law ministry requesting an increase in the price of the land in Meghshimul mouza), and then sold the portions off to different buyers. To note, the price of homestead land varies between Tk 16,000 and Tk 35,000 in four other mouzas. This was a flawless replication of previous such models, and would have been actualised totally unnoticed during the government acquisition, had it not been for the "interference" of Mohammad Abdul Latif. Like the fly in the milk, Latif not only found these discrepancies during an assessment, but also unwisely (for him, at least) wrote a letter to the health ministry saying that implementing the drug plant project on the Meghshimul land would be a financially wasteful venture, as it would require about an additional Tk 100 crore to buy land there, in comparison to land of the same class in nearby areas.

Such interference usually does not yield good results, and the same happened for the ill-fated Latif. As soon as word got around about his letter, local ruling party leaders and activists took to the streets demanding the removal of this controversial DC.

Ours, unfortunately, has become a land where the truth lies with the powerful, even if their actions suggest otherwise. The incident with Mohammad Abdul Latif reminds me of the case of Bangladesh Railway travelling ticket examiner (TTE) Shafiqul Islam, who was suspended in May 2022 for allegedly misbehaving with relatives of the railway minister's wife, travelling without tickets. According to Shafiqul, he was only doing his job after consultation with his superiors, when he fined the ticketless passengers.

While the minister later admitted his wife's ill-judged behaviour, and also had Shafiqul's suspension withdrawn, the TTE's reputation was not spared by railway officials. Shafiqul had been branded as a person with a "mental problem" who behaved rudely with others, just like Latif has been called "corrupt," by local ruling party leaders and activists in Manikganj.

It seems that some kind of infectious cancerous disease has infected all our systems, with nepotism, corruption, self-interest, misgovernance, incompetence, and inefficiency eating away at our integrity, ethos, and morals. Why else would an honest DC be called corrupt and transferred, or a TTE be suspended, for doing their job, for doing what is right?

Last year, a Transparency International Bangladesh  study found that 0.4 percent of the country's GDP (amounting to Tk 10,830 crore) was lost to bribery. Almost 71 percent of the surveyed households were affected, with the most corrupt sectors being the police and its different wings, the Department of Immigration and Passports, and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.

Since the health minister's alleged money-making misadventure inspired this piece, it would be fair to mention the myriad irregularities in the health sector, which are all but common knowledge. An audit by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh revealed that financial irregularities to the tune of Tk 193 crore were carried out in the health sector during the initial period of the Covid-19 pandemic. The report came out last year, and the minister has yet to take responsibility for the shameless level of corruption that has been committed under his watch. Unfortunately, many such ills plague our healthcare system. And, as per standard operating protocol, whenever such findings come out, investigation committees are formed but the outcomes remain buried under the rubble of more corruption.

In an ideal scenario, authorities would take serious note of these allegations and reports, and work on strengthening the governance system by rooting out corrupt and corrupting elements. As such, the government must look into the concerns raised in the letter by the former Manikganj DC and take action against the culprits, even if they hold the highest offices. No government official should be subjected to persecution for doing their job.

Tasneem Tayeb is a columnist for The Daily Star. Her Twitter handle is @tasneem_tayeb