Corruption is making it difficult for government social safety net programmes to properly serve the poor or achieve their service targets, the chairman of a parliamentary committee yesterday said.
Dr Mozammel Hossain, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on Social Welfare Ministry, said corrupt practices by Union Parishad authorities and other service providers were an obstacle to the programmes.
He was speaking at a meeting yesterday of members of various parliamentary standing committees, development practitioners and journalists, at the conference room of the Minister’s Hostel in the Parliament Building. The discussion was jointly organised by Wave Foundation and the Governance Coalition.
Moreover, many programme beneficiaries allege that government agencies prioritise those beneficiaries named by ruling party men.
Abdul Hai, member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Planning Commission, admitted that this occurs but should be avoided.
In response to a question from the Dhaka Tribune on discrepancies between the amount of food the government is supposed to provide in Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) programmes and the amount actually given, Abdul Hai acknowledged that a problem existed and said this happens because monitoring systems are weak.
A lack of coordination among social safety net programmes is another problem, causing overlaps in the selection of beneficiaries, participants said.
With a total of 99 ongoing programmes administered by 21 ministries, considerable overlap in the selection of beneficiaries remains a problem.
Kaniz Fatima, coordinator of the Food for All Campaign, suggested that the government form a separate ministry or platform to coordinate the programmes to avoid overlaps and bring more people under the safety net umbrella.
“This will help the government avoid overlaps of beneficiaries and make the programmes more successful,” Mohsin Ali, convenor of the Governance Coalition, said.
For the 2014-15 fiscal year, the government has allocated Tk25,371.35 crore for safety net programmes – around 11.5% of the total budget.
The schemes include food for work, vulnerable group feeding, vulnerable group development, test relief and open market operations aimed at improving the lives of the country’s poorest.
Some 15.7m out of 38.5m poor people in Bangladesh live in extreme poverty, according to the General Economic Division of the Planning Ministry. That means 10.64% of the population lives in extreme poverty.
Organisers of the discussion meeting suggested that the government establish a database of beneficiaries to determine the actual number of poor people being served.
Mohsin said a database would help aid givers select those in real need. “It will also cut down on misuse,” he added.
Kaniz Fatima said the distribution of food ought to be replaced by the distribution of cash via bank accounts since beneficiaries, in most cases, say they seldom get the amount of food that they are officially earmarked to receive.
PKSF Chairman Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad told the Dhaka Tribune that distributing cash via bank accounts, while a good idea in general, would not be viable for the most marginalised segment of the population.