At least a half of the food allocations meant for rural development work and social safety net do not reach the target population due to the system loss that has its roots in the allotment policy, officials and local government representatives say.
Misuse takes place at different stages — from receiving goods from government’s food warehouses, formation of project committees, implementation of the projects to getting the seal of approval from the project officials.
Elected representatives of union parishads and municipalities, local government units responsible for implementing food aid programmes at the grassroots, say the existing government policy requires them to go through all the stages which eats up 50% of the allocations which come in the form of food grains, mainly rice, worth Tk50bn annually on an average.
As per the policy, local government representatives have to collect the sanctioned amounts of rice or wheat and sell those in the open market to fund the development projects earmarked. Problems start with getting the amount released from upazila level warehouses and continue throughout the whole process.
Local government representatives blame the allotment policy for an estimated annual loss of Tk25bn in food-aided programmes meant for generating seasonal employment during the lean season and feeding the elderly and other vulnerable groups.
They say they want the system to go but officials in the local administration are not interested to take steps in this regard.
According to the of Directorate General of Food, the government has allocated total 6.493mmt rice as special and general allotment for the local government institutions in four years and nine months of the present tenure, up from 4.028m tonnes allotted in the full five-year term of the previous BNP-led government.
The amount included nearly 1m tonnes given to the members of parliament as special allocation. The rest went to chairmen and mayors across the country as general allocations for food-aided social safety net programmes including food for work, test relief (TR), general relief (GR), vulnerable group feeding (VGF) and vulnerable group development (VGD).
Local government professionals said the allotments channeled through union parishads, municipalities and MPs for the development of rural infrastructures and social institutions like maintenance of roads, bridges and culverts, renovation works of schools, colleges and religious worship grounds and direct food aid for the poor people are not being used properly.
They pointed out that though all the liabilities finally go to local UP chairmen and mayors, most of them are not aware about how the allocations made to MPs are used and for what.
The MPs form project committees with local party leaders and get them to implement the projects. The allocated food grains are sold at half the mentioned price and the money is used showing different projects which in most cases exist only in paper, the local government analysts said.
Abu Sayeed, chairman of Churain UP of Dhaka’s Nawabganj and Anwarul Haque Sarker, chairman of West Chhatnai UP of Dimla in Nilphamari told the Dhaka Tribune that chairmen and mayors get allocations for physical works, but they are not aware about the allocations given to MPs, who form project committees with unelected people having no accountability to the people.
President of Bangladesh Union Parishad Forum Mahbubur Rahman Tulu claimed that around 50% of the allotments for local government are being wasted due to the government’s policy.
He said according to the government policy, chairmen and mayors have to do development works by selling allocated rice or goods. The price of rice was set at Tk32,500 per tonne. But, chairmen or mayor has to show the selling price at Tk15,000 to Tk16,500 per tonne to cover the cost of the system that involves a syndicate of traders and warehouse officials.
“UP chairmen have to manage local MP or leaders and project implementation officers (PIO) before starting physical works. Finally, they have to face criticism or allegation of corruption,” he added.
Officials concerned did not agree to their suggestions for changing the policy and making sale of allocated goods at market price mandatory, he said.
Local government expert Tofayel Ahmed said that the system of special and general allocations for local government itself prompts chairmen or mayors to be involved in corruption. So, the allocation process should be changed and reformed soon.
“The representatives of local government institutes can use a very small portion of the allocation, but they take liability of the assets and misappropriation. They need to pay the bureaucrats, warehouse officials, local leaders and finally local project implementation officers for their work,” he added.
AKM Mustafizar Rahman, MP of Kurigram said MPs never interfere in works of local representatives, who work independently with the allocations that they get as they are the implementing authority.
“But they have nothing to do with the specials allocations that the MPs get from the government as they also have some responsibilities to the local people as an elected MP,” the lawmaker told the Dhaka Tribune.
Local Government Secretary Abu Alam Md. Shahid Khan admitted the fact that local government allocations are not being used properly. “It’s known to all that major portions of the allocations are being wasted.”
“Despite knowing about the high price of goods, they are taking it as there is a huge scope of corruption and misuse of assets,” he said, blaming the local government units and defending the government policy.
A total of 4,547 UPs and about 350 municipalities are involved with the development works of at least 15 ministries and divisions including local government division, food ministry, disaster management and relief ministry, social welfare ministry, primary and mass-education ministry and land ministry.
Sometimes, they have to work with the national or international NGOs and aid organisations
