Nearly 44 percent of 45 female upazila nirbahi officers have faced challenges in taking steps against corruption, finds a study by Transparency International Bangladesh.

The challenges include pressure from local influential people and politicians, false allegations, and non-cooperation from the district administration, upazila parishad chairman, and law enforcement agencies.

For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel.

According to the TIB report, 89.1 percent of the 45 female UNOs could take steps against corruption.

The graft watchdog disclosed the findings of the report — “Role of Women Upazila Nirbahi Officer in Establishing Good Governance at the Local Level: Challenges and Way Forward” — at a virtual press conference yesterday.

An online survey for the report was conducted between June 2020 and March 2021.

The TIB says out of the total 485 upazilas in the country, 149 (31.1 percent) had female UNOs in June last year.

Questionnaires were sent to all 149 female UNOs for the survey. However, only 45 of them took part.

Speaking at the programme, TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said UNO offices play the most centralised role in strengthening the integrity system at the local level.

“Our integrity system will be strengthened if good governance is ensured at [UNO] offices and those are made conducive to women’s playing their due role in ensuring good governance.”

The magnitude of graft, lack of good governance as well as a vested quarter’s interest in gaining benefit from the situation are among the key reasons for the challenges for “empowerment of female UNOs in true sense”, he said.

The female UNOs also faced challenges in providing secretarial support to the upazila parishad. They faced challenges from local public representatives which is unexpected as they are supposed to create a conducive working environment for the UNOs, said the TIB executive director.

The UNOs, he said, came under pressure from public representatives for refusing to cooperate with them in committing corruption and irregularities.

“This should be looked into deeply and necessary steps should be taken in this regard,” Iftekharuzzaman told the press conference.

There were instances of creating obstacles by several related institutions or a section of their officials to bar female UNOs from providing administrative support and implementing government directives, he mentioned.

According to the TIB report, 78.3 percent of female UNOs mentioned facing various challenges in carrying out their duties.

It found that while providing secretarial support to upazila parishads, female UNOs came under pressure to commit irregularities in the distribution of relief materials (34.3 percent), not to scrutinise the rationale of expenditures (31.4 percent), approve false expenditure bills (28.6 percent), and commit irregularities in purchases (25.7 percent).

The study further revealed that female UNOs faced challenges in providing assistance to upazila parishad chairmen. The challenges include lack of support from the chairmen (40.5 percent), obstacles in taking steps against corruption (31.4 percent), pressure for carrying out unethical activities (31.4 percent), and political influence from local quarters (31 percent).

It said there are allegations of sexual harassments of female UNOs.

Ninety-eight percent of the 45 female UNOs said they faced challenges in disaster management. Those included insufficient budget, lack of coordination between government departments concerned, pressure for committing irregularities in relief distribution and lack of support from the people.

Similarly, 91 percent of the surveyed female UNOs faced challenges in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report says steps taken by the female UNOs to combat graft included complaining to the ministries concerned or the Anti-Corruption Commission about corrupt individuals, forming ethical committees, conducting anti-graft drive and punishing corrupt persons.

It says female UNOs faced challenges in carrying out their duties. The challenges came from a range of individuals, including upazila parishad chairmen, a section of local journalists, lawmakers, local politicians, law enforcement agencies, and government officials, including deputy commissioners.

All the female UNOs tried to address the challenges themselves. Besides, 80 percent of them sought support from district administrations, one-third from ministries concerned, 31.1 percent from lawmakers and 22.2 percent from law enforcement agencies, read the report.

Iftekharuzzaman said an analysis of the experiences of female UNOs reveals that political and social domains in the country’s administration were not gender sensitive yet.

From the experiences of different countries, it was seen that the more women empowerment is ensured for performing administrative duties or running the state, the possibility of establishing good governance and combating graft grows, he said.

It is the duty of the state to create a conducive environment in this regard, the TIB executive director added.



‘Unexpected’ obstacles
Source: Trend Viral Philippines