TIB slams removal of Dhaka WASA chairman amid his allegations against managing director
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Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has strongly criticised the removal of Dhaka WASA's Chairman Golam Mostafa, who brought allegations of arbitrariness, among others, against the Managing Director Taqsem A. Khan.
Earlier, on May 19, in a statement, TIB urged the government to consider the allegations of arbitrariness levelled against Taqsem A. Khan.
On Monday, the Ministry of Local Government appointed Dhaka Wasa board member Sujit Kumar Bala as the new chairman.
Terming the removal of Golam Mostafa as an alarming example of "shoot the messenger" practice, the anti-graft watchdog said this is in utter conflict with the government's declaration of zero tolerance policy towards corruption announced by the highest levels of government, as well as the legal obligation to protect whistleblowers against abuse of power and corruption.
In the statement, TIB also called for a fair and transparent investigation to hold the accused accountable and to take the complaint of the former chairman into account.
According to media reports, the chairman of Dhaka WASA had written to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development, and Co-operatives and also publicly accused Managing Director Taqsem A Khan of committing corruption and financial mismanagement and taking arbitrary actions undermining the functionality of the Wasa board.
"This is fully unacceptable to witness the incident of the removal of the WASA board chairman only for raising formal complaints against the Dhaka WASA MD," said TIB Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman in the statement.
"We do not want to consider the incident to have occurred only as a result of the normal process", he noted.
The accusation made by the board chairman of turning Dhaka WASA into a sanctuary of arbitrariness, irregularities and corruption is a reflection of the results of the study report titled "Dhaka WASA: Challenges of Good Governance and Ways of Transition," published by TIB in 2019, the TIB executive director added.