The entire administration was held hostage by the Sheikh Hasina led Awami League regime during its 15-year rule with the connivance of a section of ambitious, politically-motivated and loyalist bureaucrats, economist Debapriya Bhattacharya told a press conference on Sunday.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, now leading the committee for preparing the 鈥榃hite paper on the state of Bangladesh economy鈥� formed by the interim government, made the remark at a press briefing held at the Planning Commission auditorium.
He said that earlier on the day the committee had a meeting with the top bureaucrats in which they confessed that the administration had breached the rules and regulations to harp on the 鈥榮o called鈥� development narrative of manufactured by the government led by Sheikh Hasina who was oust and fled to India on August 5 amid a student-led mass uprising.
Some officials who tried to go by the rules saw their promotions to get held up or were 鈥榙umped鈥� or transferred to less important聽 positions or postings.
Even the various associations of the bureaucrats did not help out their colleagues facing the regime鈥檚 wrath as these associations were led by the government loyalist civil servants, said Debapriya, adding that the leaders of the associations formed part of the beneficiaries.聽聽聽
Earlier on the day, the committee held a meeting with high-level government officials, including 32 secretaries, as the part of its consultation with various stakeholders in the process of its preparing the white paper.
When asked whether the bureaucrats made the immediate political regime scapegoat to save their own skins, Debapriya said that a section of senior public officials connived with the regime to secure personal benefits, including promotions and better postings.
Debapriya also called the discussion with bureaucrats an unprecedented event that exposed the collusion among politicians, bureaucrats and businesses to approve costly and unnecessary projects without feasibility studies, and undue time extension and cost increase of projects, paving the way for appropriation of public funds.
Debapriya also mentioned that the meeting focused high spending projects, Karnaphuli Tunnel, energy sector, National Board of Revenue, and Bangladesh Bank.
Answering another question, he remarked that the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division gave flawed reviews on development projects.
His answer was negative when asked whether there was any discussion about the bureaucrats鈥� role in the bilateral deals and pacts Bangladesh had with other countries.
Economist Mustafizur Rahman, a member of the committee, said that they would describe disadvantages of the deals struck by the ousted regime in the whitepaper.
Line of credits given by India and deals with China and Russia had been reviewed, he added.
The committee members said that the bureaucrats stressed the need for steps an administration based on professional mindset.
The bureaucrats also highlighted the need for politics in its true sense, which would serve the greater interest of the country, said economist Selim Raihan, also a committee member.
With Sunday鈥檚 consultation, the committee already completed dialogue with 48 groups and individuals.
The committee is expected to submit the much-talked-about white paper to chief adviser Muhammd Yunus聽 at the end of this month.