TIB voices concern over relaxing wealth statement provision for govt servants

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) today voiced deep concern over the move to amend the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules 1979 by relaxing the provision for mandatory submission of wealth statements.

The press release from TIB stated that the proposed amendment would effectively exempt around 1.5 million government employees from accountability measures, thereby promoting corrupt practices.

The Bangladesh chapter of Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) urged the government to cancel the initiative.

TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said the annulment of provision of wealth statement submission will create a situation where the dishonest government officials would become more corrupt.

"The proposed amendment of the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules is exactly opposite to the government's electoral pledge and the government's top leadership's declaration of zero tolerance policy against corruption," he said.

He added that there was a provision to submit the assets statement every year, but later it was relaxed and the provision was changed to submitting wealth statements every five years due to the reluctance of the government employees.

Now, the removal of the obligation in a sense means massively promoting the tendency of government employees to become corrupt, said the TIB executive director.

"If there is no provision to submit the wealth statement, the tendency among the government employees would go up to acquire illegal wealth through adopting corruption fearlessly," he said.

At the same time, the suffering of people to avail the services in government offices will increase, illegal money transactions will go up manifold and overall, the government's dream of ensuring a well-governed system will end in failure, he said.