No foreign trips, car purchase for govt officials unless urgent

Government officials will not be able to buy cars or travel abroad without urgent reasons, the finance ministry said in a notification on Tuesday.

This came as government officials had become more inclined to travel abroad with the Covid-19 pandemic situation improving.

The government is adopting austerity measures mainly because of the decline in revenue collection caused by the global health crisis.

In the last financial year, about Tk 12,000 crore was saved due to thriftiness in buying cars for government officials.

Tuesday’s notification also said the money in development funds remaining unused during the rest of the current financial year cannot be included in the operating budget.

Also, no additional money can be sought beyond the operating and development funds allocated for all ministries and divisions in the current fiscal year.

The notification said half of the allocation for official trips can be spent.

The finance ministry also instructed all ministries and divisions not to transfer the unused money of foreign travels to other sectors.

It said vehicles cannot be bought in bulk and 50 per cent of the budget in this sector can be spent while the rest of the money cannot be transferred to other sectors.

Moreover, the notification said the money required to complete the development projects supposed to be finished by the current financial year should be kept in the revised budget.

Also, the number of projects should be limited in the revised annual development programme (ADP) and allocations for less important projects should be cancelled if necessary.

Furthermore, the ministries will be able to cut funds from slow projects and transfer that to fast-moving ones.