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Representatives of donors raised their concerns over poor political governance and government's move to control activities of donor funded Non-Govern-ment Organisations (NGOs) in the name of ensuring accountability.

Donors' representatives stationed in Dhaka also called for public debate on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), reform programmes and conditionalities at a pre-Bangladesh Development Forum (BDF) meeting, widely participated by civil society representatives, leaders of political parties and representatives of donors, organised by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) on Wednesday at the CIRDAP conference room. Finance and Planning Minister Saifur Rahman was present as the chief guest at the meeting.

All the leaders of political parties and civil society representatives, except the ruling party leaders, expressed their anxieties over the ongoing political confrontation, lack of security of livelihood, rise of communalism and religious extremism, poor state of human rights violation and absence of rule of law and good governance. They also put forward their recommendations for addressing reform problems to donors in the meeting.

CPD organised the meeting prior to the BDF meeting to facilitate civil society representatives convey their messages to the representatives of donors.

German Ambassador Dietrich Andreas present at the meeting said with frustrating note that donors will not raise their problems again and again. "NGOs are important for development for any country and also for upholding state of human rights," he said while commenting on government's recent move to regulate activities of NGOs.

"Rules and regulations of NGOs may lead to political polarisation of good NGOs if control mechanism is imposed on," German Ambassador told the meeting.

A Danish diplomat said that donors are committed to assist Bangladesh, but they face serious problem regarding the utilisation of their fund. Pointing to the corruption charge against Shipping Minister, Danish diplomat said, "we have already explained our position to the government thrice but no proper action was taken to address our concern."

He also uttered words of caution, "if we are not allowed to play role, there will be no role of Denmark."

USAID mission chief in Bangladesh Gene V George said that donors give priority to whether NGOs receiving fund are investing money as per their framework even outside the given project. In such context, NGOs receiving fund are not accountable to misconceptions, he said.

Both the Australian High Commissioner Laurrein Barker and an European Commission diplomat were of the opinion that due to poor political governance investment is not coming to Bangladesh in expected manner.

World Bank Country Director Christine I Wallich urged the government to initiate public debates on on-going reform programmes and PRSP. She emphasised on investment on police sector reform, health, education, power and port. She observed that ADP implementation process is slow. "Governance has remained a concern for development partners," she remarked.

She also observed that people in Bangladesh feel fear to express their views on different issues. "I did not experience such situation earlier." However, she expressed satisfaction over robust macro economic situation. She mentioned that the election in Bangladesh is highly expensive and 20 million dollar is spent on an average in each constituency of the country.

Finance Minister Saifur Rahman, stayed short while in the meeting due to pre-occupation with Prime Minister, said that if there is no political confrontation in the country, national economy will surely see a boom.

"The present government is giving priority to governance, law and order and infrastructural development issues," he said. He emphasised on the involvement of civil society in formulating reform agenda.

Saifur said that Pakistan and Bangladesh have different social contexts, so the pace of development in Pakistan cannot be matched with that in Bangladesh. He told the donors' representatives that they are offering appropriate infrastructure, legal system and good regulatory.

While, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Political Secretary to leader of the opposition in parliament and Awami League Chief Sheikh Hasina, said that the government should not patronise NGOs of particular ideologies while indicating government's sponsoring to NGOs following radical ideologies.

Prime Minister should earn people's confidence first, rather she should not say in the public meeting that she has the donors' support, she said. "Changes of policy with the changes of power is frustrating for donors community," he said. Many projects approved by Awami League Government have been suspended and cancelled by the present BNP- Jamaat Government.

About reform in election process, he said that pool of bureaucracy involved with election process can be politicised. With such administration, free and fair election is not possible, Saber said. He urged the donors to seriously think about decentralisation of service delivery system.

Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal President Hasanul Haque Inu said that the government has failed to make any breakthrough in growth, poverty and employment in the country in the last one decade. He also called for bringing reforms in electoral process.

Former Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury emphasised on private sector led growth. There are many recommendations remained idle with the Ministries but very of them saw the light of implementation, he said.

Earlier, Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya of the Centre for Policy Dialogue presented a keynote paper on the trend of aid flow in Bangladesh in the meeting. In his paper Debapriya observed that compared to availability and commitment made by donors, disboursement is not upto satisfactory level.

Among others, Sultana Kamal of Ain O Salish Kendra, Mushfiqur Rahman and M Rezaul Karim of BNP and journalist Ataus Samad addressed the meeting.