Bangladesh, just like every nation in the world, is facing an uphill battle in the fight against Covid-19. However, with its dense population and underwhelming medical capacity, Bangladesh’s challenge is greater than most other countries.
This challenge, unfortunately, is being compounded several times over because of the rampant corruption that permeates our society, across all sectors, but in the light of the pandemic, particularly the health sector.
It has been extremely disheartening to see the extent to which mismanagement and corruption have gripped the health sector, and officials from every major health body -- be it Central Medical Store Depot (CMSD), the Ministry of Health, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) -- have come under fire.
However, what is even more disheartening, and infuriating, is that most of these officials, against whom there are several allegations of corruption and mismanagement, are simply being transferred or reshuffled.
This reshuffling and transferring achieves nothing but serve as an eyewash for the general public, and essentially displays weakness and a lack of assertiveness from the authorities concerned -- a lack of willingness to do the right thing.
Restructuring, reshuffling, and transferring people who have been found to be nefarious and corrupt will solve absolutely nothing. If these officials are indeed found to be in the wrong, then it demands proper punishment, to the fullest extent of the law.
Make no mistake about it, we have a significant problem regarding corruption and mismanagement, the adverse consequences of which is mostly felt by the general public. If the government is truly serious and earnest in its pledge to weed out corruption, it must start taking assertive actions, not just shuffle officials around under the guise of better coordination.