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Permanent Solution Needed After Temporary Emergency Move
Farid Hossain

The army chief Moeen U Ahmed has recently dropped a bombshell. In a speech to a contingent of freedom fighters at the national parade ground on March 27 the army chief said at least 200 billion takas have been smuggled out of the country from the power sector alone.

The huge flight of the power sector capital occurred in the past five years -- when the BNP-led coalition government was in power. This is definitely a bad news. But the good news is that the military-backed interim government in Bangladesh is taking steps to bring the smuggled money back home. The process has already started.

In the first step towards locating the money and bringing it back, the caretaker government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed has decided to sign the UN Convention Against Corruption. Even though the decision has come late, it is welcome. It is still unclear why the past government of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia did not make any move to sign the UN convention.

Bangladesh, often listed by Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International as the world’s No. 1 corrupt nation, should have been among the countries who signed the convention in the first phase. That would have given the world a positive message: the country is serious about its fight against corruption.

The responsibility of fighting the wrongs committed by Khaeda Zia’s government has now been put on the caretaker government. Bangladeshis are gleefully watching the caretaker government in carrying out its responsibilities with firm determination.

A post-mortem of the past BNP-led government presents an alarming picture, especially in the power sector. During its five-year rule the BNP-led coalition government did little to produce new electricity. But it did not hesitate to plunder the nation’s wealth in the name of laying thousands of kilometers of new electricity lines and poles. The line and the poles have remained idle. There is no electricity for transmission.

In playing the useless lines and poles Khaleda Zia’s powerful son Tarique Rahman and his cronies are alleged to have siphoned off thousands of crores of takas, which they reportedly smuggled out of the country.

While the country suffered serious shortage of power affecting industry, agriculture and home consumption, only a handful of the powerful men reaped personal gains. Khaleda Zia’s government pushed the power sector to a real mess and it will not be easy for the current government to lead the country to the path of recovery. The government is trying hard, we all know.

Consider what the World Bank has said about the corruption in the power sector. A day after the army chief’s disclosure a World Bank official in Dhaka said an amount of $150 million goes down the drain because of corruption. The World Bank figures mainly deal with the wastage of money in the power sector. It did not want to be dragged into the remarks of the army chief.

All these disclosures came at a time when Bangladesh is struggling to increase power generation and keep the nagging load shedding under control. With the advent of summer the demand of electricity has jumped putting pressure on the generation, which is about 3,000 MWs a day -- far below the need.

Business people in capital Dhaka and in other towns have heeded the caretaker government’s call to close their shops by 7 p.m. so at least 400 MWs of electricity is saved to be diverted to the irrigation pumps in the villages.

It is reported that the move has reached more power to the croplands, even though it came at the cost of the traders who suffered losses for wrapping up the businesses early. This has been a temporary emergency move. A permanent solution lies in making more electricity available: either by generation or by imports.

Both the World Bank and ADB believe Bangladesh can import power from neighboring India. Such imports will be financially feasible for Bangladesh. The interim government can look into the suggestion.