DC-UNO gets a new automobile before the vote
Date: 12/10/2023
DC-UNO gets a new automobile before the vote
The government has taken the final decision to purchase 261 new cars for the District Commissioners (DCs) and Upazila Nirbahi Officers (UNOs) three months before the National Assembly elections. Each car will cost around 1crore Tk. In all, the expenditure will be 381 crore 58 lakh taka.
During the election usually DCs act as Returning Officers and UNOs as Assistant Returning Officers. All the responsibilities and powers of the elections in the respective constituencies are basically in their hands. Sports utility vehicles (SUVs), popularly known as Jeeps, are being purchased for these officers.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs meeting, which was held virtually, gave in-principle approval to purchase vehicles through the Direct Purchase Method (DPM) on Wednesday. That means the cars will be bought without tender. Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the meeting. The decision to buy the cars comes at a time when the government is facing a cash crunch. The US dollar crisis is ongoing. The government is unable to release electricity and fertilizer subsidy on time. The dollar-crisis is due to the price of electricity coming from abroad. The government is not able to pay the gas price of foreign companies on time.
A press briefing is usually given after the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. Yesterday, Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Finance, Gazi Touhidul Islam, informed earlier that it will not be notified due to 'unavoidable reasons'. He told Prothom Alo that the officer who informed it was not done because he had other work. However, sources say that the decision to cancel the notification program was made to face questions about buying a car.
Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division Syed Mahbub Khan usually briefs the journalists. He attended the meeting. When asked last night, he told Prothom Alo, "The proposal to buy a car from the Ministry of Public Administration has been approved in principle." He did not want to say anything other than that.
However, when asked over the phone last night, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told Prothom Alo that the cars needed to be bought earlier. And vehicles are really needed during elections and they are needed for conducting fair elections. These will be purchased from the government agency Pragati Industries.
The finance department of the Ministry of Finance, which has given instructions not to buy new cars for austerity, has now taken a stand in favor of buying new cars. When asked to explain this, the finance minister said, "If there was no need to buy a car, the finance department would not have given an opinion." It is true that there is a crisis, there is a need to buy a car, it is also true.
Vehicles to 'select pretty'
The Ministry of Public Administration informed the Finance Department that the vehicles need to be purchased for the smooth completion of the upcoming parliamentary elections. The Ministry of Public Administration has said that the new vehicles are needed to ensure smooth completion of national elections, operation of mobile courts, maintenance of law and order, and uninterrupted transport services at the field level. Currently, vehicles whose lifespan is 13 years or more will be replaced by new vehicles.
Last month, the government promoted 221 people from deputy secretary to joint secretary post before the next elections. The process of promotion from senior assistant secretary to deputy secretary is underway, which is said to take place before the elections. Although there are no posts in the administration, these promotions are being given, which is questionable. On the other hand, the opposition parties in the field are complaining that the government has arranged the administration by appointing the preferred officials as DC and UNO in various districts and upazilas.
When contacted, former Cabinet Secretary Ali Imam Majumder told Prothom Alo, "It is not necessary to say before the election, if there is a need to buy a car, the government will buy it." But now that the time of crisis is going on, it is advisable to adopt the austerity policy of the government in purchasing anything.
Will the car arrive earlier than the election?
According to the Cabinet Committee meeting, the initiative to buy these cars was taken on June 12. The Department of Public Vehicles first informs the Ministry of Public Administration about the demand. The next month in July, the Ministry of Public Administration sent a letter to the Finance Department.
The matter went ahead after the then Finance Secretary Fatima Yasmin gave her positive opinion. The Ministry of Public Administration then sent it to the Cabinet Department for policy approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. In the next step, the proposal to purchase the vehicle will go to the Cabinet Committee on Public Procurement.
There are three months left for the National Assembly elections. At this time Pragati Industries should complete the rest of the process and give the purchase order. Then progress will give the car.
When asked whether it is possible to deliver the car within this period, Pragati Industries Officer-in-Charge Abdul Halim said that it is possible. But as the time is short, the government should issue the purchase order at the earliest.
It changed into the finance branch that imposed the restrictions
The model of the car to be purchased for DC and UNO is 'Mitsubishi Pajero Sport QX'. 61 will be purchased for DCs and 200 for UNOs.
According to sources in the Finance Department, apart from the use of DCs, the Ministry of Public Administration also wanted a car for the DC office. Said, 96 for DC and DC office and 365 for UNOs i.e. total 461 vehicles will be required. It will cost 612 crore rupees. The Finance Department did not agree to the entire proposal and asked the Ministry of Public Administration to make a fresh application.
But it was the finance department that had imposed restrictions on the purchase of new cars on the grounds of austerity. On July 2, with the aim of reducing government expenditure, a directive was issued that the purchase of all types of vehicles (motor vehicles, water vehicles, air vehicles) will be stopped under the management and development budget in the fiscal year 2023-24. The Department of Public Vehicles did not purchase any new vehicles during the financial years 2021-22 and 2022-23.
At the same time, the directive also mentions that the money allocated to the motor vehicle, watercraft and aircraft sectors under the operational budget will be stopped. It is also said, "There is an opportunity to spend with the approval of the finance department in the case of replacing motor vehicles that are more than 10 years old." The government has utilized that opportunity.
Not only buying a car, the government has also increased the spending limit on buying a car on August 1. Now, instead of Tk 94 lakh, a car worth up to Tk 1 crore 45 lakh can be bought.
Although the government has given in-principle approval for the purchase of cars for DC and UNO, the proposal to buy new cars for the vice-chancellors of 14 universities is pending in the finance ministry. On September 11, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had written to the Finance Department seeking Tk 20 crore for the purchase of new vehicles.
Economists say, if necessary, the government could have salvaged the completed project vehicles and given them to DCs and UNOs for the time being. Later, when the crisis was over, they could buy a new car. There are allegations that the project vehicles are supposed to be deposited in the government's transport pool but are not provided. Ministry of Public Administration has not received the account of the vehicle despite repeated letters. The last letter was sent in September.
The government will not directly spend foreign exchange to buy new cars. But Pragati will import all the parts of the car and only add it. As a result, the country's dollars will be spent on importing their cars. Actual reserves of US Dollars in Bangladesh Bank (accounted to the IMF) have now dropped to $1,700 billion. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) may not waive the $4.7 billion loan tranche if there are no dollar reserves as per the conditions.
Zahid Hossain, the former chief economist of World Bank's Dhaka office, told Prothom Alo, "It will not take so much money to put pressure on the overall economy to buy 261 cars." Even then, I will say that this 382 crore rupees is also money. He said, "We need to see first what is the rationale for buying a new car and what message is being sent through it?"It would not be inconsistent to question whether buying new cars was necessary in this scenario of dollar-crisis, high inflation, low revenue collection. If the car is needed more, it can be rented for the time being. If the financial situation improves, one could think of buying later.'
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