Editorial
Civil Surgeon claiming signature fee?
What it has come to!
We have known it for some time that many government officials are apt to demand signing money for certification of an entitlement which falls within the purview of their normal duties to dispose of. The fact that they are of a status that enables them to certify someone approaching them, albeit with the right documents, is a matter of prestige for the certifier. More importantly, they are helping people to meet an official formality required to be fulfilled by some authority in the government of which they are a part.
A Prothom Alo report titled 'I do not sign for anything less than Tk 400' says it all. Referring to a civil surgeon's fixed demand for giving health certificate to newly recruited government appointees it confirms the public impression that even in receiving a legitimate service a citizen has to grease a palm.
By the civil surgeon's own admission, the malpractice has been continuing for a number of years by way of a preceding civil surgeon handing down the right to gratification to a succeeding incumbent.
When the reporter demanded receipt for such payment, a startled civil surgeon said he couldn't do it. When told that the matter would be reported, he tried to put up a brave face as if he could not care less. But that was a momentary bravado as he cracked inside realising the consequences of being reported. He came to senses, expressed his regret and implored the journalist not to make a news of it. But the news had to come out in public interest and it has, our thanks to the reporter.
Beneath the culpability of the extortionist attitude on the part of a government official there is a deeper malaise. The government officers are paid to serve the citizens but they make the latter feel as if they are favouring them. This is a serious deficiency of administrative culture which needs to be urgently redressed because it is an anachronism in an independent democratic country.
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