Civil servants too excited by state of transition to do much work
Staff Correspondent
Officials and employees at the Bangladesh Secretariat have started bidding farewell to the outgoing advisers to the interim government as the new Cabinet, to be led by Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, takes oath tomorrow.
Ministry officials hardly did any office work with the country undergoing a transitional period while the advisers, who were found to be in a farewell mood, also signed some pending files on Sunday. The number of visitors abruptly seemed to increase on the day. Many officials now posted outside were also seen meeting senior officials in their offices.
The government of Fakhruddin Ahmed ends its eventful and dramatic tenure on Tuesday evening as soon as the new Cabinet is sworn in.
‘We will have two more days in office as swearing-in of the new Cabinet will take place on Tuesday evening…We have discharged our responsibility and the new government will work out its plan to run the country,’ commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman told reporters at the secretariat on Sunday after a delegation from the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries bade farewell to him.
He opined that the nation was going to have a strong government through the December 29 elections to the ninth Parliament.
‘The people have now become more confident, and are more ambitious about the changes they deem necessary. The new government should consult with the stakeholders before taking any decisions to make bureaucracy more functional,’ he added.
The commerce adviser expressed the hope that the next government would continue the efforts to check the rampant profiteering of amoral traders that has created such misery in the people, especially of the lower income group.
Officials of the communications and the public works ministries organised separate meetings to bid farewell to adviser Ghulam Quader.
Quader asked the government officials to be impartial while discharging their responsibilities, whatever positions they hold. He said the public servants should serve the people and prefer to uphold the interest of the state rather than that of any particular government.
LGRD and cooperatives adviser Anwarul Iqbal and land adviser AF Hassan Ariff also held farewell meetings with the officials of their ministries. The officials presented them with bouquets, and they thanked the officials for their cooperation during the tenure of the interim government which assumed office on January 12, 2007 under a state of emergency.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
