Financial Management for Parties
'Free politics from black money'
Speakers at a roundtable stressed the need for organised financial management of political parties to establish intra-party democratic culture and free politics from black money.
The speakers opined that political parties should come out of the culture of secrecy and publish annual reports on websites detailing their income, expenditure and status of wealth for accountability.
They said the government should take some responsibility of election expenses of the parties and the election commission should be free enough to impose electoral laws impartially against its violators.
The roundtable styled 'Transparency in political finance: challenges and solutions' at a city hotel on Monday night.
Rajshahi chapter of Shacheton Nagorik Committee (SNC), a citizen's body run by Transperency International Bangladesh (TIB), organised the roundtable with its conveynor Dr Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan Sajal in the chair.
Reading out the keynote paper based on TIB researches in 2010, TIB's researcher Shahjada M Akram said none of the political parties maintain accounts as per the rules. Usually all parties other than CPB and JSD maintain accounts through a register book that remain inaccessible to general members.
He also said the Election Commission (EC) lacks manpower and mechanism to scrutiny financial affairs of political parties and electoral candidates although the EC is responsible for controlling and examining political finance.
Executive Director of TIB Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the TIB researches showed that Bangladesh is better than Indonesia and Nepal in formulating laws to make political finance transparent, but the two other countries are better than Bangladesh in complying with the laws.
Speaking as the chief guest, Rajshahi lawmaker Fazle Hossain Badsha observed the influence of black money in the country is so deep that certain political party in the recent past siphoned off the country's money to abroad.
He suggested a change in the political culture and electoral process.
Rajshahi University (RU) Social Science Faculty Dean Dr Mizan Uddin said political parties must take lesson from the Soviet Union where a political concept was rejected for losing confidence of people.
RU teacher Nurul H Chowdhury, former BNP MP Lutfunnessa Hossain, editor of local daily Sonali Sangbad Liakat Ali, RU teachers Pranab Kumar Pandey, Golam Rabbani, Ilias Hossain and Dr M Rafikul Alam, Dr Mojibur Rahman, development worker Tawhidul Alam Tia, politicians Sadrul Isalm, Nawsher Ali, Morjina Parveen, among others, spoke.
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