It is hard to believe that our finance minister, in a recent meeting at the World Bank, brought up the Padma bridge fiasco again, and to ask for the funds to be diverted to other Bangladeshi projects no less.
As an official who is meant to represent us, it is mortifying that Muhith chose to take this initiative.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the government has made this kind of a gaffe. A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that the government had approached the Islamic Development Bank, requesting that it resumes its funding of the controversial bridge project.
This attitude is a complete turnaround from when the government condescendingly told the World Bank that they were welcome to pull their funding as we had the means to fund the project on our own.It is perplexing that the government seems to believe that it can make these kinds of bold statements and disregard allegations of corruption on the one hand, and then on the other hand, ask the same donor to reallocate those same funds.
The ramifications of these actions are more far-reaching than the government seems to fathom. Not only did government leaders allegedly engage in corrupt practices, but when confronted, the government chose not to address the issue.
Going back to the World Bank with the aforementioned request signals that the Bangladeshi government just doesn’t get it. The government still apparently has no comprehension of the gravity of a large-scale corruption charge or perhaps it is simply indifferent to how it is perceived by others both inside and outside the country.
Neither of which augurs well for the future.
