Make every taka spent on public projects count: Shahe Alam

Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives State Minister Mir Shahe Alam today (10 November) urged newly appointed assistant engineers of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) to ensure that infrastructure built with people’s hard-earned money is durable and brings real benefits to the public.

“You must think repeatedly before implementing any project that the money belongs to the people and is being spent for their welfare. The infrastructure must also be built to last,” he said.

The state minister was speaking as the chief guest at the inauguration of an orientation and training course for newly appointed LGED assistant engineers at the Kamrul Islam Siddiqui Auditorium at the LGED headquarters in the capital’s Agargaon.

He said LGED spends thousands of crores of taka every year on rural infrastructure development, and failure to ensure quality outcomes would be deeply disappointing.

Emphasising the need for quality construction and cost-effective development, Mir Shahe Alam said the government implements various priority projects through LGED, including canal excavation, rural road repairs, employment of women to promote their empowerment and tree plantation.

He urged the engineers to familiarise themselves thoroughly with government policies and plans, particularly the Rate Schedule, Public Procurement Act (PPA) and Public Procurement Rules (PPR), which they would need to follow in their field-level work.

The state minister said the newly appointed engineers would help address the shortage of engineers in the department and accelerate its activities.

He advised them to maintain professional relations with contractors while ensuring that no one could influence them to serve personal interests.

“You will work for the people. You must understand your responsibilities properly and never show negligence or compromise on the quality of work,” he said, asking the engineers to supervise projects in accordance with the prescribed conditions.

Mir Shahe Alam said LGED currently has development projects worth around Tk1.20 lakh crore underway across the country, while projects worth nearly Tk 0,000 crore are in the pipeline for implementation over the next three to four fiscal years.

He also welcomed the appointment of 176 assistant engineers, including 12 to 13 women, and praised their academic qualifications.

The state minister also acknowledged criticism over the quality of LGED’s construction work, citing incidents of bamboo being used instead of steel rods, concrete slabs coming loose and road carpeting peeling off.

He said the government had held several meetings with field-level officials to improve construction standards and urged the newly appointed engineers to ensure that such irregularities did not recur.

He said some buildings, including primary school buildings, become unusable within five to 12 years, although they should ideally last 30 to 40 years.

“We must rethink how we implement projects and ensure that contractors deliver work according to the required standards,” he said.

Referring to corruption in construction work, Mir Shahe Alam warned the engineers against compromising quality for financial gain.

He said they should never allow contractors to reduce construction standards in exchange for sharing the money saved.

The state minister also said the government would try to implement the proposed engineering cadre for LGED officials as soon as possible, in line with the Prime Minister’s directive.