The government has decided to closely monitor the activities of all field level administrative officers including DCs and UNOs. Government will mainly depend on reports from different intelligence agencies in this regard, sources said. The decision was taken recently at a meeting of the Cabinet Division regarding the evaluation and office management of the District and Field level administration. In addition, separate committees have been constituted for daily evaluation of the field level officials.
The meeting of September 7 emphasised the review of intelligence reports from various field administration agencies. It was decided to review the intelligence report and submit it on time. In addition to ensuring supervision of the presence of field level officers, every officer of the district and field level must visit at least four districts and upazilas once a year, every three months.
The Cabinet Division wants to undergo strict surveillance of the overall activities of the field administration including DC, UNO and AC Land Office. Monitoring arrangements have been taken at various levels for this purpose. Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division Ghaffar Khan said that field level administrative officials, including DCs and UNOs, are being monitored in different groups. Cabinet officials are being divided step-by-step to conduct surveillance. There is also good feedback, as a result, a lot has changed. The attendance of the officers has also increased. Regarding the intelligence report, he said their report must be given importance.
Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Iftekharuzzaman said such a decision could in some cases be logical. However, in most cases there are risks because intelligence reports create a barrier to the development of professionalism, neutrality and excellence. In many cases there is a chance of being harassed by the party. However, it may be necessary to find out if an officer is engage in any activity opposing state rule, he added.
Barguna DC Mostine Billah said according to the government's recent directives, the deputy commissioners are being monitored by the cabinet department. The UNO is being monitored from the office of the Deputy Commissioner. In this way, every department head is supervising the subordinates. Many DCs unwilling to be named said that public administration officials are not properly evaluated through intelligence reports. In this case, they advised to give the highest importance to the secret reporting of the administration (ACR) rather than giving too much importance to the reports of various government intelligence agencies.
However, there are many allegations of harassing administrative officials through the use of intelligence reports. Former Public Administration Minister Syed Ashraful Islam himself raised the issue that because of these reports officials are accused of factionalism. He came out of these irregularities and ordered a transparent administration. But that directive has not been implemented still today. Rather, public administration officers are still facing problems and it has increased.
