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I have observed the last hours of the negotiation process regarding the industrial investment proposal of the Indian giant, Tata, via the electronic and the print media. I also watched Dr. Abul Barakat, economist, Kutubuddin Ahmed, the ex-BGMEA president, and Mahmudur Rahman, the BoI executive chairman, talk about Tata’s proposal, probable effects that the proposed projects might trigger, the politico-economic status of the country and the probable course that the nation might follow in deciding about the matter, on RTV in the night past 10th of July, 2006.
   Though the proposal of Tata has been suspended for the time being and they have not withdrawn the proposal for good, there is still room for the government to consider it if they find it worthwhile as Tata has disclosed. Against this backdrop, a discourse on the issue can possibly go on.
   I have read Tata’s reply to Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud’s report and his reply to that reply. I have not had the opportunity to read the original report of Dr. Mahmud. Since the industrial investment proposal of Tata involves the supply and consumption of a huge quantity of natural gas which is the lone substantial mineral resource that the country is endowed with, I, though a common man, feel the urge to put forward a few of my thoughts.
   As per available estimates, the stock of gas will get exhausted within the next 25 years at the present rate of consumption. If Tata is allowed to install the proposed plants — which will swallow a huge quantity of gas — the rate of consumption will definitely increase at a galloping rate. Has this resultant rate of consumption been considered while reckoning the time period for which the gas resources will last? I don’t have this information, but observing the exercises being done as disseminated through the media, I don’t see any sign that this has been done. If this is true, the rate of consumption will increase greatly reducing the length of time for which the country will enjoy the gas facility.
   Natural gas is a commodity provided by the nature under an evolutionary process stretched over thousands/millions of years. We have nothing to do with it, we cannot regulate it and we cannot increase or decrease the flow of its supply. We can only consume.
   
   Three major areas
   There are many areas of consumption; the principle areas are: industrial consumption; vehicular consumption; household consumption.
   All the above consumption requirements are crucial. If we analyse, the industrial consumption requirement appears to be quintessential, because gas is used for producing electricity which is necessary for irrigation, illuminating our dwellings, work places, streets at night, production of fertilizer for boosting production of our foods, for operating various industrial plants which produce hundreds of products for meeting our short- and long-term requirements. It is, therefore, extremely necessary that gas be made available for industrial consumption in abundance. But, until now we have not been able to supply sufficient gas to industries in and around Dhaka, not to speak of those in other areas, whereas it is extremely necessary to make gas available to industries in other areas of the country for the sake of equitable distribution of a national resource as far as possible and of a balanced growth, as well as creation of employment all over the country, so that the rate of human migration to Dhaka decreases gradually and social equilibrium is maintained to avoid inter-regional and intra-society enmity and confrontation.
   Mobility of man, material, machinery and capital with certain speed seats in the heart of modern economies. The case for Bangladesh is no different; we need to keep our nation going. Since we are poor, we can ill afford to purchase sufficient amount of high-cost petroleum oil from abroad and consume for keeping our vehicles moving so our economy could vibrate. This is where comes the necessity of using natural gas, which is available under our own soil and is under our own control, in increased proportions, for vehicular movement wherever possible.
   To the Bangladeshi nation, it appears, the importance of household consumption of gas is paramount. Our kitchens in many cities and towns are incrementally getting the necessary fire from gas to cook our foods that we have to burn inside to keep ourselves alive. If keeping alive is important, gas is important. We have a small mass of land for about 140 million people. Few months back, a report in the Ittefaq said that the country is losing about 80,000 hectors of arable and fallow land to urban, industrial and habitation activities each year. Conceivably, land for forestry, fishery and agriculture is getting reduced at a very alarming rate. No significant wetland virtually exists. The country doesn’t have the standard amount of forests and woodlands; it’s rather diminishing day by day. Some social forestation is going on, but that can in no way be a substitute to natural forests.
   While this is the situation, the greater portion of the population has still been using wood, leaves and other allied matters for creating fire for all purposes. Since production of wood is getting lesser and lesser, the use of gas for household purposes should get greater and greater if we really want to keep our kitchens operational in the future. Can we really think of Dhaka devoid of gas and still pulling on? Will it not be the cause of a catastrophe of immeasurable proportion? Our kitchens are depended on gas; we cannot afford to allow this limited energy dry up by opening a floodgate of its use in expectation of securing all the golden eggs at a time by a caesarean operation of the domestic duck.
   Yes, the world is striving for alternative sources of energy. European and American research centres are working to make energies, especially, hydrogen energy, available for use in place of oil and gas. May be humanity will one day be able to break up water molecules and obtain suitable hydrogen energy as a substitute of oil, or gas, or may collect this energy from air, may be there will be some other sources of fuel energy. But until then what? As a nation we ourselves have not yet shown any promise in research and innovation. Cautiously thinking, we cannot expect anything indigenous which might be refuelling us, in the event natural gas depletes at a rate higher than our consumption requirement.
   
   Factors to consider
   Tata’s proposal and calculations are tempting. It offers to give the government a share of 10%, offers to go public, proposes to accept a flexible gas pricing system and a supply guarantee for a period which it will take to repay its long-term project liabilities to banks that will provide credits to Tata for establishing the industrial enterprises here in Bangladesh (the time period not known yet). On the other hand, Tata has made calculations (basis, assumptions and methods of which most probably need be objectively examined) that consequential to Tata’s investments 24,000 jobs will be created and the GDP of Bangladesh will increase by more than one percentage point and the import substitutions that it will generate will save the country a huge amount of foreign exchange. It also claims that a substantial amount of backward linkage industries and facilities will grow up, infrastructure facilities will be upgraded and thereby contribute to the economy of the country significantly.
   These are potential advantages to be considered seriously, no doubt, but there are other factors to be considered as well. In a relative sense, Bangladesh can hardly afford to turn its back to these benefits. As we put these under a magnifying glass and attempt to see the anatomy of the benefits in comparison with the social imperatives and the indigenous economic initiatives, which are still very much in an embryonic stage, it appears to be of monumental importance that the nation first does some arithmetic before knotting itself into a relationship with Tata and tries to fill in the blanks (put in interrogative sentences) in the following comparative matrix:
   
   
   

I agree with Dr. Wahiduddin Mahmood when he expresses concern about the socially optimal use of gas which is already in short supply relative to existing and potential domestic demand. It appears reasonable and that there is virtually no alternative to the nation but to use gas for as long a period as possible for the three sectors indicated above if we are serious and sincere enough to maintain a certain level of energy security for us. That proposition, I suppose, should discourage us to get engaged in any gas-eating enterprise for the time being.
   However, I think, we should not say goodbye to Tata, because Tata’s presence is money, Tata’s presence is employment, Tata’s presence is prestige and, above all, Tata’s presence will in all probability create confidence among other international companies and investors in the investment potential in Bangladesh.
   Is there any possibility that Tata may be interested in investing in Bangladesh in other sectors with lesser or no involvement of natural gas? Is it possible that Tata can work in infrastructure, ports, railways, roads, expressways, bridges or any service sector, textiles, environment/ecology conservation, health, manpower development in terms of professional and technical achievements, research & development, real estate? May be, we can even think of just discarding the fertilizer and steel projects and go for the power and coal projects.
   Tata has demonstrated long before that it knows about its social responsibilities. It will be in the interest of the country if we can avail the opportunity to work with Tata both in terms of business and social services. But, our compulsions need be met, our inabilities be recognized.
   I have not discussed the pricing system of gas. I believe, that this is being negotiated cautiously. I have focused on the best possible use of gas vis-a-vis its availability.
   The writer, a former banker and consultant to the government, is general manager of a textile spinning mills

TIB, media and corruption
   LGRD and cooperative minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, who doubles as the BNP’s secretary general, has not only lodged a strong protest against the Geneva-based Transparency International’s Bangladesh chapter’s (TIB) latest corruption database for pronouncing his ministry being the ‘most corrupt among all the ministries’ but has also threatened to file a case against it. His main contention is that no such conclusion could be reached only on the basis of newspaper reports. While nobody can simply deny that widespread corruption does not exist in this country, the minister indeed has a point because of questionable methodology that TIB applies in its corruption survey in this country and elsewhere. The methodology used in the survey always came under scrutiny and adjudged to be inappropriate.
   TIB’s Dhaka officials are now holding meetings with the LGRD and cooperative ministry officials and are trying to find out how to sort out the hitch without entering into a legal battle. Media reports suggest that having realised the weakness of the methodology applied in charting the corruption database, the TIB officials appear willing to make necessary changes to avoid being entangled in a legal fight. In the event it proves correct, Mannan Bhuiyan will sure score a few political points and he is gunning for that.
   Whether or not media reports should form the basis of judging any event is debatable, but nobody, however, can deny the importance of the media’s role – both print and electronic – to promote the goals of achieving good governance and accountability and sensitise the members of the society about the same in the country. The question of ubiquitous and ever-spreading corruption is perhaps the most sensitive national issue that needs to be addressed by the relevant authorities in a bid to bring it under control before it becomes too late.
   Media reports only in three consecutive days earlier this week – July 21, 22 and 23 – revealed incidence of four major corruption cases in as many areas of activities involving misappropriation of thousands of crore of Taka. May be there are some exaggerations in some of the reports but nobody can deny that there exists a deeply entrenched nexus between a large number of government employees at various levels in different agencies and private businesses. The back of this deep-rooted corrupt practices cannot possibly be broken without eliminating this unholy alliance and only a strong political will based on a national consensus can do it.
   What, however, seems appalling at this stage is that despite being named as the world’s most corrupt nation for the last five years in a row by Transparency International, no serious attempt has been made by successive governments to curb it. In fact, with the gradual rise in the country’s GDP growth rate, the growth of corruption has also kept rising. The whitening of about Tk. 4,600 core of black money during FY05-06 and mostly in the last days of the last fiscal year and the generation of around Tk. 70,000 crore worth of black money in the country per year (as has been estimated by Bangladesh Economic Association’s general secretary Dr. Abul Barakat) proves the point. Dr. Barakat claims that a total of Tk. 175,000 crore worth of black money is in circulation.
   Interestingly, media reports also pointed out that one of the elected Ward Commissioners of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) has whitened Tk. 9 crore last month. Since the government has offered not to ask any question about the sources of fund if the person pays 7.5 per cent tax to the government to whiten his money, the DCC Commissioner has escaped any legal complication. But this certainly leaves a wide scope for speculations as to how a Ward Commissioner and all the rest of 7251 others who had taken the advantage of this provision and whitened Tk. 4,600 crore could amass so much money within such a short period of time. Besides, whether he and his accomplices had actually whitened all their ill-gotten money is now also open to question. This leaves a bad taste in the mouth on morality ground.
   
   The corruption cases
   A media report on Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA) says that some officials and employees of the agency have misappropriated over Tk. 2,000 crore in the last several years. At a meeting chaired by state minister for power M. Anwarul Kabir Talukdar was informed that DESA owes Power Development Board the sum of Tk. 3,531 crore and its consumers’ outstanding bills stand at around Tk. 1,400 crore. But there is no record of what happened to over Tk. 2,000 crore. Power secretary ANH Akhtar Hossain, who also attended the meeting, claimed that ‘a section of officials and employees must have misappropriated the huge sum of public money.’
   The state minister, however, sounded tough and said that those who were responsible for the missing amount would have to answer. If they fail, they will be put on trial. The trade union bodies in the power sector have always been very strong and call all the shots. Their leaders have systematically defied all government orders since Bangladesh became independent. While former president HM Ershad attempted to court them to increase his power base, the successive elected political governments since 1991 also had to eat their words because the organized trade union bodies proved politically too strong for individual ministers who attempted to introduce reform measures. As a result, either the ministers did not last long or joined hands with them; the TU leaders whims prevailed.
   Within a couple days after power state minister Talukdar warned the corrupt elements in DESA, an orchestrated campaign was cunningly launched against him alleging that his interference in carrying out normal repair and maintenance work of power plants under PDB would cause disaster as power plants may not be able to perform normally. Media reports, however, mentioned that the minister had asked the concerned officials to keep his ministry informed about issuing purchase orders for buying equipment and machinery.
   The concerned officials or departments have the authority to issue purchase orders worth Tk. 12 crore and the minister only wanted to keep an eye on the purchase pattern without directly interfering in their decision-making process. But the minister’s initiative seems to have sounded the alarm bell and those involved know that unless they hit back aggressively they might lose out at the end. This means that the minister’s notice to keep him informed on how the fund is being used in effect could disrupt power generation and distribution and unless he mends his way he would be held responsible for any disruption in the power sector. Now the minister perforce, would become too busy to explain his conduct to the power that be and in the process become defensive. That is all that was needed to divert his attention from the DESA misappropriation.
   
   PDB’s extravaganza
   The minister’s initiative may have been based on yet another report by a probe body revealing that the power division has inflated an original allocation of Tk. 1,168 crore and spent Tk. 2,484 crore irregularly without any authority. This report was submitted to the finance minister during the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) last week. This was done under the second phase of the Rehabilitation, Renovation and Augmentation of Grid System (RRAGS) project. The implementation period of the project began in 1999 and scheduled to be completed this year. However, the report pointed out that despite containing a number of flaws in this project, the probe body was not given the authority to identify the officials involved in the alleged irregularities. The probe body was asked only to confine itself to finding out how the additional amount of fund was spent. In its report, however, the probe body managed to pinpoint the officials who masterminded the alleged irregularities and suggested actions against them.
   Among the glaring irregularities, the probe body pinpointed, the procurement of 42 vehicles ‘through improper tender procedures’ and that too was done without taking prior approval from the concerned authorities. But such approval was essential for increasing any cost of the component, the report says, because Tk 3,003 crore cost was part of Tk. 8,228 crore loan received from China on hard terms for the whole project. Like that of DESA, this too is a serious allegation of massive corruption against the PDB officials and if the probe body’s report is sent by the authority concerned to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for a proper follow up, the perpetrators could be dealt with appropriately.
   No wonder, the DESA and PDB officials are now orchestrating a serious campaign against the state minister for power for his initiative to put a tab on the working of the concerned PDB officials. Such a campaign against a minister is not new and it is being done to dissuade him from making any serious attempt to go deeper into the corruption issue and put a stop to any attempt to forward the probe reports to the ACC for further actions.

Israel on Lebanon: the attack goes on

BBC Wolrd runs a programme ‘Have your say’ where the viewers’ comments are instantly obtained through e-mails and phone calls as the programme is broadcast and guests are invited and experts are asked to speak on the issue.
   On July 23, the topic of ‘Have your say’ was Israel’s cruel attack on Lebanon, the recent Middle East crisis. There were two experts to speak on the issue as the viewers raised questions and the presenter of the talk show posed the questions. The planners of the programme appointed a university professor who spoke like the Israeli prime minister and an envoy of the United Nations who spoke typically like the US Foreign Secretary Condoleezza Rice. Now guess, what BBC delivered to the world in the name of viewers’ say? This was an eye-opener for me. This is how the international media plays tricks and get its biased viewpoint broadcast through the voice of hired experts. Why should I blame Bangladesh Television any longer? They do lie but they don’t cheat.
   Tamanna Hassan
   Ottawa, Canada
   

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