Discontent over mass transfer at food directorate:Daily Sun

  In a surprise move ahead of the aman procurement, the Directorate General of Food has made a massive reshuffle in its district-level offices that sparked resentment among the affected officials. Earlier on October 27, Food Minister Advocate Qamrul Islam announced that the government will procure some 300,000 tones of Aman rice from farmers across the country at Tk 32 per kilogram. The procuremen
t will continue from November 15 to February 28. Insiders say the public procurement, especially that of rice during and after the seasonal crop harvests, are widely lucrative for officials within the department and many pursue the high-ups at the food directorate and the ministry to get desirable posting in the district level. According to sources, some 18 district controllers of food (DC Food) were transferred from current assignments last month. In some cases, DCs Food were transferred before the completion of their two-year tenure while some other got surprise posting in ‘lucrative’ areas…where large scale procurement is involved. Sources identified the mass-transfer as unprecedented in recent history of the directorate and alleged that, “Transferring any official before completion of his/her two-year tenure is absolute violence of the directorate’s code of conduct.” When contacted over cell phone, director general (DG) of the Food Directorate Md Sarwar Khan admitted that he also received allegation that the rules of transfer were violated in one or two cases in the reshuffle process. “However, I will look into matter,” Khan said. He also said reshuffle is a regular practice in government jobs and the civil servants must follow the orders. “Management of public procurement requires skills and efficiency and we have considered that while planning the transfers,” he said. According to sources, the district level officials (DC Food) who received transfer orders are: Jamal Hossain from Rangpur to Bogra, SM saiful Islam from Kurigram to Rangpur, Ashrafuzzaman from Jessore to Kurigram, M A Sayeed from Manikganj to Tangail, Mahbubur Rahman Khan from Tangail to Manikganj, Golam Mostafa Sarker from Noakhali to Chandpur, Md Moniruzzaman from Chandpur to Dhaka (head office), Abu Nayeem Md Safiul Alam from Faridpur to Sunamganj, Abdul Kader from Hobiganj to Panchargarh, Anisuzzaman from Jhalkathi to Jessore, Mamunur Rashid from Borguna to Comilla, Sudhangshu halder from Meherpur to Jhenaidah, among others. In the transfer orders, they were directed to report to their new postings immediately, sources said.