Saturday, May 24, 2008

Tk 588.4 crore in fine - how many has been held accountable?

A crime of this proportion should not only be restricted on paying fine. A process should be developed that allows the law enforcement agencies to get into deeper to held accountable those who were responsible

Five organizations - four for-profit joint venture organizations and one government watchdog. And among them, a total of 588 crore taka of fines. See the following news item attached at the end of the article. The four companies had actually done the wrong, and the government agency didn't do anything to right the worng. Actually, many would argue that the BTRC was actually facilitating the theft over the years.

While the fines are good news, it is incomplete.

Within these five organizations, how many has been held accountable so far? The companies has been fined. But how many of the individuals has been fined?

Punishment on the individual level may not be our main objective, but what is there to deter similar kind of abuse in the future? Can we at least know who were the responsible person in policy-making positions who oversaw this mess, had the capacity to make policies to avoid the mess, but didn't do anything? Again, to emphasize the point, we are worried about the whereabouts of those persons now - what new mess are they are creating now (either because of their incompetence or because of their dishonesty or both) that the nation will know few years later?