Hossen Sohel of DOT :
Reaffirming her government’s tough stance against corruption, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday directed the Public Administration Ministry to issue a strong warning against graft by field-level administrations, reports UNB.
“Your specific directives must reach the administrations at the grassroots level that tough action will be taken if anyone resorts to corruption,” she said while visiting the Public Administration Ministry in the morning.
The Prime Minister wondered why there should be corrupt practices when the government enhanced the salaries, allowances and other privileges of the public servants significantly. “They [public servants] must change their mindset.”
She emphasised ensuring good governance and building a corruption-free administration for achieving the government’s goal to take the benefits of development to the doorsteps of common people.
Sheikh Hasina, also the Public Administration Minister, said the salient feature of the country’s development is the current low inflation rate amid the rapid economic growth. “Many countries can’t control the inflation during their speedy economic growth.”
Noting that Bangladesh has been able to keep the inflation rate within 5.4 percent to 5.5 percent, Hasina said the common people can directly enjoy the benefits of the high growth and low inflation.
The Prime Minister said Bangladesh achieved 7.86 percent GDP growth in the 2017-18 fiscal year, which was higher than the 7.40 percent target. Now her government’s target is to raise the growth to double-digit one within the next five years.
“Since we’ve been elected for five years, our target will be to raise the growth to 10 percent in these five years. And it’s possible to achieve that,” she added.
About corruption, Haisna said, “We also announced zero-tolerance against corruption as we did so against terrorism, militancy and drug.”