Project funds for MPs in election year

Members of the parliament will receive fresh allocations to construct madrasas in their respective areas. Each MP will get funds to construct at least six madrasas in their areas. The ministers will have separate funds for 200 more madrasas. The total project will cost Tk 759.5 billion.

Three project proposals have been submitted to the planning commission for the MPs in the election year. The planning commission is scrutinising the projects. The total cost of the three projects is around Tk 1 trillion. Of the other two projects, one is for deep tube wells and public toilets. The other is for infrastructure development and renovation of village markets. The local MPs will decide where the deep tube wells, public toilets and village markets will be constructed.

The planning commission has already passed three other projects for the MPs earlier this year. New school buildings, mosques and temples will be built under these projects.

Local government expert Tofael Ahmed said this is a violation of the election rules. Only one particular political party will benefit from such projects. These projects are taken into consideration to appease the voters in the election year so that the MPs can create a vote bank. The work of these projects will be distributed among the associates of the MPs, he added.      

Tofael Ahmed also said it is the responsibility of the concerned ministry to construct new schools and madrasas. Involving the MPs in this is a violation of the constitution. MPs are not allowed to carry out any executive work. The budget is hampered by this. At the most they can ask about any irregularities in the parliament regarding the work.

Planning commission officials said the madrassa construction project was submitted to the commission last January. According to the project, each of the MPs will decide where they will construct six madrasas in their respective areas. Then the madrasa education directorate will construct the five-storey buildings. The project was expected to start in January this year and to finish by June 2020.

The planning commission officials also said a total of 2000 madrasa buildings with latest facilities and computer labs will be built under this project.

The planning commission’s Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) approved the project during their meeting on 25 February. The committee will shortly submit the project to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) meeting for final approval, planning commission officials added.

Member of the planning commission’s general economic division (GED) Shamsul Alam said, “The reality of our country is the MPs are more development oriented. People expect development work from the MPs. The MPs also have to go to the people for votes. Projects are taken in consideration of this and I don’t think this is bad. However, the performance and expenditure of the projects must be monitored.”

Sources said the MPs submitted Demand of Order (DO) letters to the education ministry for construction of madrasa buildings in their respective areas. They demanded new buildings for the madrasas, pointing to the dilapidated state of the existing ones.

The Education Engineering Department (EED) submitted the project proposal to Planning Commission earlier this year as the government decided to disburse the money as per demand of the MPs. 

Planning commission sources said the project was transferred to the madrasa education directorate as the budget would be allocated from their funds.

The madrasha education engineering department’s director Billal Hossain told Prothom Alo, MPs would decide which madrasas would get new buildings. The education department would just construct the buildings.

Construction work will begin as soon as the project gets a nod from ECNEC, he added.

There are two other similar proposals with the planning commission. One is to construct deep tube wells and public toilets. The cost of the project is likely to be Tk 9.3 billion crore with Tk 30 million taka on average for each MPs.

Another infrastructure project to construct village markets would cost Tk 17.85 billion. MPs would be given the allocation to construct infrastructure at they want.

Members of the Indian parliament also receive  similar ion apparently to win over the voters ahead of the election. But they are bound to ensure accountability and transparency of the projects while the matter of transparency is questionable in our country.

Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee’s acting president Shahriar Kabir vented his frustration over the project of constructing madrasa buildings.

He said, while school buildings are already in a shabby state, constructing madrasas would be suicidal for the country.

He also urged the government to put more emphasis on general education instead of madrasas.

 MPs received allocation for three other projects in the current fiscal year. In two separate projects, MPs received funds to construct 10 new school buildings and complete 10 under-construction school buildings in their constituencies.

Another project is for development of mosques and temples, with allocations of Tk 10 million for each MP.

A total of Tk 165.51 billion taka would be spent for the three projects yet to start.

The government started to allocate money directly to MPs in 2010. A project was then launched which provided Tk 150 million to MPs for the next five years to construct roads in their area.

The second phase of the project is on. It is to be completed in 2019. The alocation  has now increased to Tk 20 million for every MP. However, the government's Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED) has never evaluated the projects except a few in the 2014-15 fiscal.