Honorarium jumps to Tk15,000 from Tk8000

At a time when ordinary people are struggling to cope with the rising cost of living amid soaring commodity prices, the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) has nearly doubled the honorarium paid to its board members for attending meetings.

Under the new decision, the honorarium for each board member attending a meeting has been increased from Tk 8,000 to Tk 15,000. This represents an 87.5% increase over the previous amount. The authority cited the overall economic situation, rising commodity prices and the increased cost of living as reasons for the hike.

The decision to increase the honorarium was taken at the latest board meeting of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority. Sheikh Rabiul Alam, Minister for Road Transport and Bridges and chairman of the Bridge Authority, presided over the 117th board meeting held on 30 July.

At the meeting, Bridge Division Secretary and BBA Executive Director Mohammad Abdur Rouf said the honorarium rate had remained unchanged for a long time. He argued that the existing rate was no longer appropriate given the current economic circumstances. Based on his proposal, the board members decided to increase their own honorarium.

The proposal to increase the meeting honorarium stated that board members had previously received Tk 8,000 per meeting. Since 2018, honorarium rates for board meetings at various government authorities, autonomous institutions and state-owned organisations have increased significantly.

The proposal also cited the country’s overall economic situation, rising prices of goods and the increased cost of living as justification for the hike. However, experts have criticised the decision, describing it as undignified, a conflict of interest and an abuse of power.

At the meeting, BBA Executive Director and Member-Secretary Abdur Rouf said the authority’s board members play an important role in making policy decisions, reviewing the progress of major infrastructure development projects, approving financial and administrative matters, and formulating future plans. Following an overall review, he said the existing honorarium was no longer appropriate and proposed increasing it to reflect the importance of the responsibilities and maintain consistency with similar organisations.

In this regard, Water Resources Ministry Secretary Dr AKM Shahabuddin said the BBA board meeting honorarium could be revised in line with the rates paid to board members of similar government and semi-government institutions, including IDCOL, CEGIS, IIFC and IWM.

After detailed discussions, the board decided to increase the honorarium. As a result, the amount paid to board members for attending each meeting has been raised from Tk 8,000 to Tk 15,000. This means an increase of Tk 7,000, or 87.5%, over the previous rate.

According to the Bangladesh Bridge Authority Act, 2016, a 15-member board is formed with the Road Transport and Bridges Minister as its chairman. Most members of the board are secretaries and senior officials from various important government ministries.

At present, the secretary of the Bridge Division is also serving as the executive director of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority. As a result, although the board consists of 15 positions under the law, 14 individuals are effectively serving on it. And they themselves decided to increase their own honorarium.

According to the minutes of the meeting, Bridge Division Secretary and Executive Director Mohammad Abdur Rouf himself raised the issue of increasing the meeting honorarium at the board meeting. The other members then joined him in deciding to raise the amount. In other words, the people directly involved in determining who would receive the meeting honorarium and how much they would receive acted both as proposers and decision-makers.

People familiar with the BBA said the practice of increasing honorariums by comparing them with those offered by various autonomous and state-owned organisations should be stopped. They believe such honorariums should be assessed by an independent salary or allowance commission, or should require approval from the government’s highest policymaking bodies, such as the Ministry of Finance. They said it cannot be ethical for board members to determine their own honorariums by choosing similar organisations for comparison.

According to the latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the comparison between the BBA board members’ honorarium and the income of ordinary people presents a stark picture of economic inequality.

According to the BBS survey, the average monthly income of a typical household of 4.26 members in Bangladesh is currently Tk 32,422. The average monthly per capita income of an ordinary citizen is only Tk 7,014. This means that senior government officials involved in policymaking will receive nearly twice the amount that an ordinary person earns in an entire month simply by attending a board meeting for a few hours in an air-conditioned room.

Analysts have criticised the decision, calling it undignified, a conflict of interest and an abuse of power. Government secretaries serving as board members already receive substantial salaries and various benefits. Therefore, they argue, there can be little justification for increasing their separate meeting honorarium. If a senior government official receives, for attending a single meeting, an honorarium twice the average monthly income of an ordinary citizen, it amounts to a form of mockery of ordinary people, they said.

Analysts said the cost of living has indeed increased, but bureaucrats already receive various benefits at public expense. Therefore, using the rising cost of living or soaring commodity prices as a justification for increasing their own meeting honorarium is completely unreasonable. Particularly when officials attend board meetings of government agencies as part of their official duties during office hours, there are serious ethical questions over whether they should receive additional money or honorarium for doing so.

Speaking about the increase in the honorarium for BBA board members, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), said, “There is no policy justification for officials who serve on government institutions by virtue of their positions to receive separate honorarium for attending board meetings.”

Calling it an unacceptable practice, he said it was highly unethical and shameful for officials to decide on their own to increase their own allowances.

Expressing his frustration, he said, “Officials have turned participation in board meetings into a means of personal profit and are abusing their power as an opportunity to misappropriate public money. At a time of economic crisis in the country, such waste and misuse of the hard-earned money of the people by senior government officials cannot be acceptable in any way.”

According to the TIB executive director, the decision is not only contrary to policy but also amounts to injustice toward ordinary people and an extreme abuse of power.

Regarding the increase in the allowance for BBA board meetings, Mohammad Abdur Rouf, executive director of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority, told Asia Post, “The decision to increase the allowance was taken while maintaining parity with other institutions.”

He said the board’s existing allowance had been fixed a long time ago. The government has now increased various allowances and examination fees. In addition, while VAT and tax were previously deducted at a rate of 10%, the government has now decided to deduct 20%. As a result, although the allowance has been set at Tk 15,000, Tk 3,000 will go to the government as VAT and tax, leaving a net amount of Tk 12,000.

He further said, “Other organisations such as IAFC, ITCAL and Natural Board provide allowances at the same rate. Autonomous organisations such as the Bangladesh Bridge Authority meet their expenses from their own income and do not depend on the government. Overall, this decision was taken to maintain consistency with government policy and other equivalent institutions,” he said.

Asia Post contacted Sheikh Rabiul Alam, chairman of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority and Minister for Road Transport and Bridges, by mobile phone regarding the matter, but he could not be reached.