Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday reiterated her firm conviction to fight irregularities and corruption in the society.
“Now we’ve taken steps that by no means we will condone corruption,” she said.
The premier said this while addressing the signing ceremony of the Annual Performance Agreement (APA) of the ministries and divisions for the fiscal year 2024-2025 at Shapla Hall of the prime minister’s office, reports UNB.
In the function, the APA Award for FY2022-23 and Integrity Award for FY2023-24 were distributed among the government offices for their excellent performance in APA implementation and rendering services respectively.
The prime minister received the APAs from the secretaries of the ministries and divisions. A total of 52 ministries and divisions signed APAs with the Cabinet Division.
Citing that the government announced a “zero tolerance policy” against corruption, she said,” We’ll take proper actions wherever any irregularity is seen.”
The prime minister said she doesn’t believe that if action is taken against corruption, the blame would be shifted to her government. A few people commit corruption, but many people are blamed for it.
“This is why proper actions will be taken against those who get involved in corruption. I don’t care what blame would be given to the government,” she said.
Hasina said she wants to create scopes to work for the welfare of the people by correcting society further.
She said the government wants to build a corruption-free society and also pays attention to enhancing the quality and skills of government officials.
She asked every ministry to enhance monitoring of its subordinate offices up to field-level offices to ensure good governance. “The top side (of the administration) is very good. Some problems occur at the bottom,” she added.
Hasina asked the authorities concerned to take the preparation in advance to face probable floods saying that a lasting flood might hit the country this time.
She also asked the government officials to practice austerity, work to boost food production, complete the implementation of unfinished projects speedily, and enhance monitoring to stop the wastage of resources and check corruption.
‘Don’t be nervous seeing newspaper’
The prime minister asked the government officials not to be nervous or worried, seeing anything in the newspapers.
“There is nothing for you to be nervous or embarrassed by seeing what is written in the newspapers. Rather, you should check if there is any authenticity of it (the news). If it has no authenticity, dump it straight to the dustbin and you don't even need to read it,” she said.
The cabinet division has signed the APAs with the ministries and divisions and now the ministries and divisions will sign the APAs with their subordinate bodies including divisional, district and upazila-level offices of the government.
In the function, Labour and Employment Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain received the Integrity Award 2023-24.
The Power Division has attained the first Award in the APA implementation for 2022-2023, while the Public Administration and the Energy and Mineral Resources Division gained the second and third positions respectively.
The ministries and divisions that attained fourth to tenth position in the implementation of APA are the Water Resources Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, the Bridges Division, the Road Transport and Highways Division, the Civil Aviation and Tourism Ministry, the Rural Development and Cooperatives Division and the Finance Division.
Public Administration Minister Farhad Hossain spoke on the occasion, while Cabinet Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain delivered the welcome speech.
Labour and Employment Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain and Power Division Senior, Secretary Md Habibur Rahman expressed their feelings at the function.
The government introduced the result-oriented APA method in the public administration in the 2014-2015 fiscal year to enhance institutional efficiencies and thus ensure transparency, accountability and optimum utilisation of resources.
