The cabinet yesterday approved a proposal for annual submission of income and wealth statements of ministers, state ministers, deputy ministers, and other people with similar status to the prime minister from now on.
It, however, did not decide whether the wealth statements will be made public.
The decision was taken at a weekly cabinet meeting in Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
Sources present at the meeting told The Daily Star that the prime minister will review the wealth statements and then send those to the cabinet division, which will preserve the statements, but it was not made clear whether the cabinet division will make those public.
The premier warned her cabinet colleagues that their files will be sent to the Anti-Corruption Commission for investigation if any anomaly is found in the statements. "And you will be dropped from the cabinet," she was quoted by a senior minister as saying.
Asked about making the wealth statements public, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury said, "We will submit our wealth statements to the prime minister, and it is her prerogative to make those public."
Talking to The Daily Star after the meeting, Matia said the cabinet division will issue a circular in this regard soon, and after getting the circular they will submit their wealth statements. She however, did not make it clear what will be the timeframe.
The premier told the cabinet that anyone of the cabinet may voluntarily make his or her wealth statement public through putting it on the respective ministry's website.
Awami League in its manifesto, placed before the nation ahead of the last parliamentary election, said, "Wealth statements and sources of income of the prime minister, members of the cabinet, parliament members and of their family members will be made public every year."
On March 16 this year, only Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith made his wealth statement public.
The cabinet also approved the National Science and Technology Policy-2011 yesterday. Prime minister's press secretary Abul Kalam Azad briefed reporters after the meeting.
PM'S DIRECTIVES
At the meeting the prime minister asked all ministers to explain to the public the government's and the ruling party's positions regarding the 15th amendment to the constitution and the scrapping of caretaker government system, to counter the opposition's propaganda on the matters.
She also directed them to tackle the prevailing political situation of the country unitedly. She directed the home ministry to take tough steps to protect the lives of the people and their properties from vandalism in the name of hartals.
LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam told the meeting that ministers and state ministers are also political leaders, so they should speak as political leaders to counter the opposition's anti-government propaganda.
As his colleagues asked him why he had said that AL is not completely happy with the 15th constitutional amendment, Ashraf, also the AL general secretary, said reality has changed a lot since August 15, 1975. Though their ultimate goal was to reinstate the 1972 constitution, they could not do it due to some "realities", he said.
Source: The Daily Star
