Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on Tuesday voiced deep concern over the move to amend the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules 1979 by relaxing the provision for mandatory submission of wealth statements.

As a result of this initiative, some 15 lakh government employees will be exempted from accountability as well as corruption will be encouraged, said a TIB press release.

The Bangladesh chapter of Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) urged the government to cancel the initiative.

TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the annulment of provision of wealth statement submission will create a situation where the dishonest government officials would become more corrupt.

"The proposed amendment of the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules is exactly opposite to the government's electoral pledge and the government’s top leadership’s declaration of zero tolerance policy against corruption," he said.

He said there was a provision to submit the assets statement every year, but later it was relaxed and made the provision for submitting wealth statements after every five years due to the reluctance of the government employees.

Now the removal of the obligation means in a sense to massively promote the government employees to become corrupt, said the TIB Executive Director.

“If there is no provision to submit the wealth statement, the tendency among the government employees would go up to acquire illegal wealth through adopting corruption fearlessly,” he said.

At the same time, the suffering of people to avail the services in government offices will increase, illegal money transactions will enhance manifold and overall the government’s dream of ensuring a well-governed system will end in failure, said Dr Iftekharuzzaman.