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Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has called on the government to mandate the public disclosure of income, expenditure, and wealth statements of public servants alongside their dependent family members as a prerequisite for implementing the newly approved national pay scale. Welcoming the Cabinet’s approval of the revised national pay framework as a commendable initiative, the anti-graft watchdog made the appeal through a press statement issued to the media on Tuesday.
TIB maintained that enforcing an annual updating and publication requirement for the financial statements of public employees and their dependents would simplify the establishment of transparency, foster institutional accountability, and deliver harassment-free, uncorrupted public services.
TIB Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman observed that despite acute economic strain and severe fiscal limitations, the decision to implement the revised pay structure in three distinct phases is highly logical, noting that expecting peak professional excellence and graft-free service delivery remains unattainable if public servants' compensation packages do not align realistically with prevailing living costs. He stressed that to realize the intended benefits of this wage hike funded by taxpayers' money, it is vital to institute mandatory annual updates and public disclosures of income and asset portfolios for public employees of all grades, as well as their dependents.
Dr. Iftekharuzzaman emphasized that the enhanced salary structure should apply exclusively to personnel who comply with the annual updating and public filing of wealth statements, arguing that non-compliant officials should be excluded from receiving the upgraded benefits, which would serve as a powerful tool to curb bureaucratic corruption.
Highlighting the dichotomy within the civil administration, Dr. Iftekharuzzaman noted that numerous upright public servants carry out their duties with high integrity, for whom this salary adjustment is thoroughly justified and indispensable. In contrast, for unscrupulous elements entangled in corruption, irregularities, and abuse of power for illicit enrichment, such increments are entirely illogical and unnecessary, as their appetite for wealth is insatiable. He warned that extending the salary revision across the board without embedding robust accountability mechanisms would only intensify bureaucratic graft, pointing out that history provides clear proof of such outcomes. Recalling the eighth pay scale enacted in 2015 under similar state optimism regarding improved efficiency and public-friendly administrative service, the TIB chief cautioned that reality proved to be the polar opposite, with bribery, systemic irregularities, and institutional corruption broadening and deepening significantly.
He argued that without mandatory wealth reporting—a globally tested benchmark for curbing public sector malfeasance—citizens who bankroll these pay hikes through their taxes will remain entrapped within an unbroken cycle of corruption.
Furthermore, TIB expressed concern that a blanket hike in public sector salaries carries the risk of stoking inflation and escalating consumer commodity prices, which threatens to worsen the severe hardship already experienced by low-income workers and the broader public struggling under current price pressures, urging the government to demonstrate strategic foresight in addressing these economic fallouts while enforcing the disclosure conditions.
