Supervising publicly funded works

There are rules to be observed in designing structures, for land use and proper building process and these were set out in the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) of 1993. But ironically, the BNBC’s worst violators in many cases are found to be the government’s  own bodies which should have set the standard really that all others, specially private developers, would then feel obliged to follow out of a concern of being judged as violators of the law.
    But the unconcern or incapacity of the government’s construction agencies  in these respects are not only  adding to substandard construction activities of often vital projects throughout the country, the same also provide  encouragement to private sector builders to treat  legal requirements in construction rather casually.
   The case of the collapsed section of an under construction flyover at Badderhat in Chittagong last year comes sharply to mind in this connection. This is a major publicly funded work under the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC). Media also frequently mentioned collapses and part crumbling of bridges all over the country in recent years.
   Poor construction activities by government bodies not only lead to erection of weak and undependable buildings and other structures, the same also cost the public purse huge amounts for reconstruction and maintenance. For instance, the Facilities Department of the Education Ministry is responsible for large scale construction of school buildings and the like. But time and again newspapers reported the very poor quality of its construction activities in many cases. School houses built by this department reportedly collapsed in some places soon after the completion of their construction and had to be rebuilt; others were found with leaking roofs and other features of  bad construction.
   The absence of capacities or their presence in inconsequential forms show  up that more than any other factor, corruption  is the biggest factor for non observance of building procedures or using inferior construction materials deliberately so that  unscrupulous employees of these departments can make pecuniary gains for themselves and split the gains with contractors  engaged in these public works. Thus, adequate supervision of the affairs of these government’s building bodies has become indispensable.
   It is unacceptable that Bangladesh, a least developed country, has no viable mechanism in place to ensure that scarce resources spent on account of its public works are being truly well spent.

Supervising publicly funded works

There are rules to be observed in designing structures, for land use and proper building process and these were set out in the Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) of 1993. But ironically, the BNBCs worst violators in many cases are found to be the governments own bodies which should have set the standard really that all others, specially private developers, would then feel obliged to follow out of a concern of being judged as violators of the law. But the unconcern or incapacity of the governments construction agencies in these respects are not only adding to substandard construction activities of often vital projects throughout the country, the same also provide encouragement to private sector builders to treat legal requirements in construction rather casually. The case of the collapsed section of an under construction flyover at Badderhat in Chittagong last year comes sharply to mind in this connection. This is a major publicly funded work under the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC). Media also frequently mentioned collapses and part crumbling of bridges all over the country in recent years. Poor construction activities by government bodies not only lead to erection of weak and undependable buildings and other structures, the same also cost the public purse huge amounts for reconstruction and maintenance. For instance, the Facilities Department of the Education Ministry is responsible for large scale construction of school buildings and the like. But time and again newspapers reported the very poor quality of its construction activities in many cases. School houses built by this department reportedly collapsed in some places soon after the completion of their construction and had to be rebuilt; others were found with leaking roofs and other features of bad construction. The absence of capacities or their presence in inconsequential forms show up that more than any other factor, corruption is the biggest factor for non observance of building procedures or using inferior construction materials deliberately so that unscrupulous employees of these departments can make pecuniary gains for themselves and split the gains with contractors engaged in these public works. Thus, adequate supervision of the affairs of these governments building bodies has become indispensable. It is unacceptable that Bangladesh, a least developed country, has no viable mechanism in place to ensure that scarce resources spent on account of its public works are being truly well spent.