In a travel extravaganza, officials of the Election Commission (EC) and its IDEA Project (Phase-2) are making extensive foreign trips in the name of ensuring the voting rights of expatriates living in various countries across the globe.
Spending crores of taxpayers’ money, the officials have already toured the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, and some Middle Eastern countries. A fresh list of destinations and officials is now being drawn up, according to EC documents and officers concerned.
A large group of 20 officials is scheduled to fly to the US this month on a 10-day visit. Next in the queue are the Maldives, Malaysia, Jordan, South Africa, and Oman, where as many as 26 officials will be visiting in September and October, the EC documents revealed.
However, the achievement so far is negligible. In the last two years, 28,000 expatriate Bangladeshis have been made voters. Of them, only 11,633 voters have been given National Identity Cards (NIDs).
A senior official of the EC justified the foreign trips, while Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) termed the number of visits abnormal, calling for an examination of the necessity of so many overseas travels.
The extravaganza
Only one or two technical persons are needed for the task of registration, which requires taking fingerprints and iris scans. They can set up the required machinery and train others on how to use them. This task doesn’t require any inauguration ceremony, EC sources said.
Overseas visits by the EC officials for expatriate voter registration continue relentlessly. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin is currently in Canada, while Election Commissioner Brigadier General (retd) Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah will travel to Sweden next month.
The 20 officials who are scheduled to leave for the US this month will tour Miami, Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington DC. In April, three top EC officials travelled to the USA and Canada.
Upon examining the EC documents, it has been found that more than 160 officials made over 180 foreign trips in two years in the name of expatriate voter registration. The destinations included Singapore, Italy, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait.
By October, six separate teams of officials, each comprising six members, are scheduled to travel to Jordan, the Maldives, South Africa, and Oman. Additionally, two officials, including EC’s Anwarul Islam Sarkar, will visit Malaysia this month.
The documents show that officials working at the Identification System for Enhancing Access to Services (IDEA) Project made the most of the travels, followed by the officers of the EC’s ICT wing and NID department.
Technical officials are included in every visit, but the inclusion of administrative personnel has raised questions about the necessity of their visits. On the other hand, election commissioners have travelled to different countries for inauguration ceremonies, which many EC officials have termed unnecessary.
However, upazila election officers, who directly work to register voters, have very few opportunities to travel abroad, even though they are the most experienced and suitable when it comes to information gathering and the registration process for expats. Instead, top officials are making repeated trips abroad.
For instance, NID Wing Director General ASM Humayun Kabir, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed, EC Additional Secretary KM Ali Newaz, and several other officials made multiple overseas trips. It appears that EC officials are indulging in travel luxury at the expense of the IDEA Project’s funds.
Travel costs
There appears to be an attempt to conceal the spending on foreign travel undertaken by the officials. Sources at the IDEA Project said the average cost of travel for each official stands at Tk 7 to Tk 8 lakh. This amount is significantly higher for the election commissioners. The total cost of foreign travel over the last two years could reach nearly Tk 15 crore.
When approached, IDEA (Phase-2) Project Director Brigadier General Mohammad Azizur Rahman Siddiqui instructed one of his office employees to direct inquiries to the expatriate branch for information regarding the expenses of overseas trips.
However, Khan Abi Shahanur Khan, director of the expatriate branch, said, “We do not have the expenditure account. This is the project’s money. Project officials can comment on this.”
TIMES of Bangladesh tried to obtain expenditure details from some other officials at the NID branch and IDEA Project, but they were tight-lipped.
Insignificant outcome
Despite making a staggering number of foreign trips, the outcome is negligible, as an insignificant number of expatriate voters have been registered and given NIDs. Over 50,000 expatriate Bangladeshis from 10 countries applied since late 2023 to register as voters.
The highest number of applications came from the UAE. Of the applicants, only 28,000 have been registered, and NIDs have been distributed among 11,633 expats through 17 stations in those 10 countries.
EC is spending a hefty amount of money for registering so few people. According to the NID Director General, the programme will be introduced in a few more countries to get more expatriates registered as voters.
Many EC officials have questioned the logic behind sending so many officials to set up machinery and train others, with some finding the presence of administrative personnel unnecessary.
Many of the tasks could be done through Bangladeshi missions abroad or online. After the expats submit their applications online, it is the upazila-level officials who scrutinise them. As the upazila election officers conduct the activities regarding registration, they are the most suitable to be sent abroad. But, instead of them, top officials and project officials are being sent.
“Since the touring officials have almost nothing to do, the foreign trips have become like a picnic for them at the expense of public money,” said a senior EC official, preferring to remain anonymous.
When contacted, NID Wing DG ASM Humayun Kabir told TIMES that the concerned officials are being sent abroad for training and setting up machinery to conduct NID services through Bangladeshi embassies and high commissions.
In reply to a question of whether sending 20 officials to the USA was too much, he justified it by saying, “People are being sent to different locations. Only people essential for the job are being sent.”
According to the embassy, he said, there are more than 12 lakh expatriates living in the USA, but “we do not have any target as to how many will be made voters in the USA,” he said in response to a question.
Regarding the logic behind conducting the registration process through embassies and high commissions, the Director General said, “From accepting applications to approval, they will do everything. Upazila election officers will only verify them.”
Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of TIB, described the statistics of foreign travel as abnormal. “Providing the opportunity to people other than those concerned cannot be acceptable,” he said, stressing the need to look into the necessity of such extensive foreign trips.
“People expect that a constitutional body like the EC will practise moral conduct and honesty. If any element of travel luxury is found in their activities, people will question the body’s willingness to discharge its responsibility,” he added.
