JS Committee Meetings
Public Accounts Committee hits a century
In a rare achievement, a parliamentary body held its 100th meeting yesterday, becoming the most functional and sincere committee in the history of the country's House of Nation.
When many of the 48 parliamentary bodies fail to hold the minimum number of meetings, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) completed holding a hundred meetings.
According to rules of procedure of Jatiya Sangsad, each parliamentary committee was to hold at least 33 meetings, once a month, till December 2011.
Records show the parliamentary standing committees on the ministries of health, CHT affairs, water resources, and communications, among others, failed in this regard.
In addition, half of the parliamentary committees on different ministries have not sat regularly in the last three years. There are even some JS committees, including Petition Committee, which have not held a meeting at all.
A vital committee of Jatiya Sangsad, the PAC has almost cleared all backlogs of government's audit objections since 1972.
According to the PAC and parliament secretariat sources, no other JS committee since 1973 has held a hundred meetings like Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir-led PAC.
Moreover, two different sub-committees of the PAC led by Ali Ashraf and Khan Tipu Sultan held over 55 meetings separately.
Expressing his rejoice, Ali Ashraf, a member of PAC, said the committee had been able to dispose of almost all audit backlogs of the committee from 1972-73 to 2007-08.
“The committee today [yesterday] asked the Comptroller and Auditor General to complete the audit report of the present government as of now and submit it to the PAC.”
Khan Tipu Sultan, another PAC member, said there were days when they held meeting almost every day in a week.
PAC Lambastes Central Bank
The PAC yesterday criticised Bangladesh Bank top officials for what it said BB's overlooking in the public money "looting" by Hallmark Group and five other companies from state owned Sonali Bank.
The committee asked the Central Bank to take punitive actions against the perpetrators and bring financial discipline in banking sector.
The Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating Sonali Bank's illegal lending of Tk 3,547 crore to Hallmark Group and five other companies, and the people involved in the scam.
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