BLATANT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST BANGLADESHIS
ICDDR,B restructuring won'thelp local scientists
Shamsul Huda
Despite the required eligibility of the local scientists to get their due promotion to higher position at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B), over the decades no mentionable promotion took place there. This is a violation of the Ordinance regarding the ICDDR, B that was promulgated ever since its inception which clearly lays down that both the local and foreign skilled scientists shall be allowed to lead the institution.
Besides, it allows an expatriate to stay for two terms (three years each). But in Dhaka the expatriates stay more than two terms by defying the rules in the Ordinance. Though the Bangladeshis are allowed to stay the entire time during job in their posts they do not get the facilities that the expatriates enjoy. Rules are relaxed in case of foreigners but these have been strictly followed in case of the Bangladeshis.
Only the foreigners are leading this institution over the decades despite having more qualified local scientists and experts. The expatriate officers are in the important posts. The overall activity of the ICDDR, B is governed by a 17- member Board of Trustee (BOT); of them, only three are nominated by the Government of Bangladesh. At present, Sheikh Altaf Ali, secretary for the ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, secretary for the Economic Relations Department and renowned biochemist Professor Dr. Md. Suhrab Ali are representing the Bangladesh government to the ICDDR, B's BOT.
Dr. Alejandro Cravioto, executive director (ED) of the institution, who has been working for consecutive two terms, is going to restructure the present administrative frame that would create more deprivation among the local scientists and employees. At present, local scientists and general employees are not getting the facilities as stipulated in the Ordinance like those of the foreigners.
Local IT cos. bypassed
Under his leadership the Restructuring and Strategic Plan 2020 work is awarded to a company named Delloit & Touche and another company named Price Water Corporation was given contract for Hospital Management Software through the mediator of an Indian citizen Aniruddho Neogi, the finance director. These two companies got the job for restructuring without international tender bypassing the participation of the local IT expert companies. The Health Minister said to the journalists that he had informed the matter to the Prime Minister's adviser Dr. Modasser Ali who said that investigation and action would be taken according to international rules as ICDDR'B is not a local organisation.
Local IT cos. bypassed
Under his leadership the Restructuring and Strategic Plan 2020 work is awarded to a company named Delloit & Touche and another company named Price Water Corporation was given contract for Hospital Management Software through the mediator of an Indian citizen Aniruddho Neogi, the finance director. These two companies got the job for restructuring without international tender bypassing the participation of the local IT expert companies. The Health Minister said to the journalists that he had informed the matter to the Prime Minister's adviser Dr. Modasser Ali who said that investigation and action would be taken according to international rules as ICDDR'B is not a local organisation.
According to the new restructuring plan the local and other developing country scientists are to obtain funds on their own from the foreign sources for their respective projects that would definitely put the local scientists in difficulties and make them dependent on the funding authorities and abide by their instructions, said a senior scientist of the Centre. If it is implemented, local scientist's 80 per cent salary will depend on their collection from the research fund that is absolutely uncertain.
Rules violated
The local scientists who discovered the life saving oral saline in this organisation do not get due honour and privileges when they visit the centre, while the others who are foreigners get all the facilities and privileges. The local scientists have been removed from their higher posts and replaced by foreigners without complying the rules and regulations.
Rules violated
The local scientists who discovered the life saving oral saline in this organisation do not get due honour and privileges when they visit the centre, while the others who are foreigners get all the facilities and privileges. The local scientists have been removed from their higher posts and replaced by foreigners without complying the rules and regulations.
The Bangladeshi BOT members have no role except attending the meeting. So far, six EDs before Alejandro worked here. Present discrimination is going on in a wider scale. As an instance, many senior physicians are serving at the Clinical Science Division of the centre. The executive director's division took control of this division by employing a British physician who was working at the Lamb Hospital in Dinajpur and does not have experience on diarrhoeal disease management. The centre has become a dumping place of the foreigners' family members with various missions in Bangladesh. The ED office has introduced many administrative positions for the foreigners' spouse like the Head of Travellers' Clinic, the Director of Infrastructure, Head of Quality Assurance and others. All these positions are paid from the core fund. These positions were previously running with reputations by Bangladeshi scientists and experts with national grade salaries.
The Cholera Research Laboratory (CRL) was inaugurated in the year 1960 with SEATO Military Act. In the year 1974 the then president took initiative to extend its facilities to an international status. In the year 1978, the then CRL was named as ICDDR, B and was declared an international organization by an ordinance of the Government of Bangladesh. Nowhere the ordinance says that a Bangladeshi would not be capable to be the Executive Director of the ICDDR, B.
The board chairman is always a foreigner. All four divisions namely HSID-Health system and Infectious diseases division, PHSD- Public Health sciences Division, EDD-Executive Director's Division, which is directly supervised by the ED himself, and he is also responsible for Human Resources division, Finance division and IT division with individual directors of each and LSD-the Laboratory science division are headed by directors.
The director positions of HSID and PHSD are vital scientific positions for facilitating research of the working scientists. Although the directors of these two divisions left the centre long time ago, Alejandro is not hiring scientists, rather he is running all these divisions himself even without nominating any Bangladeshi as division director. This situation is decelerating scientific research in the competitive world of science and technology.
Detrimental restructuring
Sources doubt, the restructuring can be renamed as re-establishing the foreigners who are working now in the centre bypassing the Ordinance. On the contrary, the criteria that has been set for scientific track career of the Bangladeshi nationals is totally impossible to reach within the set timeframe and hence to be fulfilled by foreigners. This will not only create problems for the scientists working at the centre, it will also have a nationwide negative impact on medical and biological research, and would hamper the activities in a wide range of research objectives from laboratory to the community level, diarrhoeal diseases to infectious and chronic diseases, demographic surveillance to climate change, diagnostic service to quality assurance and biosafety etc. with modern facilities and collaboration with many national institutions.
Detrimental restructuring
Sources doubt, the restructuring can be renamed as re-establishing the foreigners who are working now in the centre bypassing the Ordinance. On the contrary, the criteria that has been set for scientific track career of the Bangladeshi nationals is totally impossible to reach within the set timeframe and hence to be fulfilled by foreigners. This will not only create problems for the scientists working at the centre, it will also have a nationwide negative impact on medical and biological research, and would hamper the activities in a wide range of research objectives from laboratory to the community level, diarrhoeal diseases to infectious and chronic diseases, demographic surveillance to climate change, diagnostic service to quality assurance and biosafety etc. with modern facilities and collaboration with many national institutions.
The plan of dissolving divisions to specific programmes will squeeze the work area and training facilities of trainees from various national institutions.It is important that the three Bangladeshi BOT members should be aware of the activities of the management how the centre is running without following the ordinance. It is clear violation of the Government directives and also looks carefully how the bilateral money is being used by the centre. Question is always raised whether such money is used for facility development, scientific achievement or for giving only salary to the non-scientific foreign staff or used for travelling of these expatriates. The deprived scientists and employees demand immediate action by the legal authority of the Government of Bangladesh against blatant discrimination.
There were attempts to contact Mr. Alexandro Cravioto, ED, and his secretary Loretta Saldanha, but they did not respond. They suggested the Holiday correspondent to talk to a senior scientist named Dr. Abbas Bhuiyan who too was unavailable.
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