TIB backs new pay structure only for officials who disclose assets
The anti-graft watchdog calls for mandatory annual disclosure of income, expenditure and assets by government employees and their dependent family members.
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has called for making annual disclosure of updated income, expenditure and assets by government employees and their dependent family members a prerequisite for implementing the new pay structure.
In a statement today (1 September), TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said the decision to implement the new pay scale in three phases was "very logical" despite the government's severe financial constraints.
"It is impossible to expect the highest level of professional excellence and corruption-free service from government employees if their salaries and allowances are not commensurate with the cost of living," he said.
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However, to ensure the benefits of higher salaries and allowances funded by taxpayers, the government must enforce mandatory annual updating and disclosure of income and assets by government employees at all levels and their dependent family members, he said.
TIB said the new pay and allowance increases should apply only to employees who update and disclose their income, expenditure and asset statements annually. Those who fail to do so should not receive the benefits of the new pay scale, it said.
"If this condition is implemented, it will help ensure transparency and accountability alongside corruption- and harassment-free public services," Iftekharuzzaman said.
Without effective accountability measures, implementing the new pay scale across the board could further increase public-sector corruption, he said, noting that previous experience had shown similar trends.
Referring to the government's expectation that the new pay structure would improve employees' financial security and motivation and help build a skilled, dynamic and citizen-friendly public administration, Iftekharuzzaman said similar hopes surrounded the eighth pay scale, implemented in 2015, but the outcome was "completely the opposite".
He said mandatory disclosure of asset statements is a globally tested method of controlling public-sector corruption. Without enforcing such disclosure, there is no way to break the vicious cycle of corruption, he said.
"Yet all government expenditure, including salaries and allowances of government employees, is borne by the people – the very people who suffer from corruption," he said.
