Mismanagement marks pandemic handling: TIB

Widespread irregularities and management weaknesses have surfaced in the government's handling of the Coivid-19 pandemic in the country, according to findings of a research conducted by the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).

According to it, irregularities have taken place in every step, including procurement of required healthcare items and supply of safety gears to health professionals. Negligence in carrying out duty, providing false report in exchange for bribe, charging more for Covid test, corruption in relief distribution etc. are among other wrongdoings.

The TIB report also said a strong propensity to take bureaucratic decisions ignoring specific expert opinions in all cases has been witnessed. Enforcement of lockdown is a case in point.

Dhaka chapter of the Berlin-based graft watchdog launched the report - 'Governance Challenges in Tackling Corona Virus' - through a webinar on Monday.

TIB Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, and its Executive Management Adviser Professor Dr. Sumaiya Khair joined the virtual briefing.

The anti-corruption agency's researchers Md. Julkarnayeen, Morsheda Akter, Taslima Akter, and Manzoor-E-Khoda prepared the report.

The TIB researchers collected health-related data between April 15 and June 14 from different hospitals in 33 districts as well as relief distribution-related information from 43 districts.

According to the report, the weak capacity of the health sector is the outcome of lack of long-term planning, absence of good governance. The Covid-19 crisis has brought to the fore the poor state of the health sector, it mentioned.

The government has failed to take adequate preparations even after getting three months' time, the report also deplored.

On the one hand, due to lack of coordination and mismanagement the rate of infections has kept on rising, most people have remained outside testing because of lack of enough testing facilities, on the other.

The TIB study revealed that a good number of health workers were not provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) although each of them is supposed to receive at least 30 sets of it.

"The government claimed to have distributed 2.3 million PPEs across the country until 14 June, according to which each of the 75,000 health workers was supposed to receive at least 30 sets of PPEs. But many health workers are yet to receive a single PPE", it alleged.

There is also lack of transparency in the procurement process, it noted, as except a few senior officials no one else knows anything.

There are allegations of partisan bias in the preparation of the list of beneficiaries for relief in 82 per cent of the areas included in the survey, the report said.

The report presented a 15-point recommendation to ensure transparency in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis, including optimum use of existing capacity, strengthening coordination among the agencies concerned, ensuring accountability, and publishing the names of relief and cash assistance beneficiaries on the official website.

"Free flow of information must be ensured in order to facilitate disclosure of information and access to information, and to ensure human rights and accountability of the management," it also suggested.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Iftekharuzzaman said the report analysed the state of governance on the basis of seven indicators and it detected severe anomalies in all of them.

He also said the financial stimulus packages are biased towards businesses instead of marginal people.

"Besides, relief distribution and cash assistance for the affected people were declared late. Even a number of graft incidences also took place with the distribution process."

He added that the Covid-19 crisis exposed capacity constraints and an extreme level of corruption in the country's health sector.