UP chairman-secretary rent government server to outsiders

A fake birth certificate in the name of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been seen on the government server of Bangladesh. It is a a trivial matter, given the state of the country's union councils.

Recently, that birth certificate of Trudeau went viral on social media.

According to sources, the fake birth registration was registered by Ahmedpur Union Parishad in Sujanagar upazila of Pabna.

Now questions have been raised over the activities of the union councils after this.

Md Torikul Islam, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO), confirmed this to Views Bangladesh and said, “The matter is being investigated. Necessary action will be taken after the investigation.”

It is learned that the Ahmedpur UP secretary is responsible for applying for and accessing the server, while the chairman is responsible for sanctioning.

But the actual fact is that the registration process was done by an outsider, who had access to the government user ID and password, alleged the sources.

The account assistants working in the union parishad alleged that the various digital center entrepreneurs are earning extra money by contractually registering birth and death in most of the country’s union parishad, bribing the the UP chairman and secretary.

Four months ago, a letter signed by a senior government officer was issued to the account assistants to do this work, but they are not being able to act in accordance with the instructive due to objection raised by the union council secretaries.

“Fake birth and death certificates, such as Trudeau's, are common due to the practice of outsourcing the registration work,” they added.

However, the fact that the Chairman and Secretary of the Union Parishad register births and deaths with private entrepreneurs is not unknown even to the higher authorities of the department concerned.
In this regard, on December 4 last, Rashedul Islam, registrar general of birth and death registration, sent a letter to the Chief Executive Officers of all city corporations and Deputy Commissioners of all districts in the country, instructing to stop outsourcing of birth and death registrations. Even after that, no change is observed in the Union Parishads.

According to the letter, secret user ID and password for registering the birth and death online had been given to two persons – UP chairman and secretary - of each registration office. Government salaried employees are supposed to perform the duties as per Birth and Death Registration Act. But they are outsourcing the job which is direct violation of the government instruction.

It was also mentioned in the letter that at present, manpower has been appointed for the posts of account assistant and computer operator in many union parishads. If they do the work of registering births and deaths, it will be accurate and dynamic.

Rashedul Islam requested in the letter to register birth and death by the account assistants.

An account assistant of the union parishad in Bogura's Shajahanpur upazila, on anonymity, said, “It takes Tk 50–100, depending on the age, to register birth. But according to the chairman-secretary, entrepreneurs charge the service seeker up to a maximum of Tk 500.”

“If we (accounts assistants) get the responsibility of registering births and deaths, the corrupt UP secretary will be deprived of the illegally earned extra income. That's why the responsibility is not being handed over to us,” he added.

Abdur Rahman, panel chairman of Madla UP in Shajahanpur upazila, said, “Births and deaths are registered by outsiders (entrepreneurs) in my union parishad.”

Masum Ali Beg, Deputy Director of Bogura Local Government Division, said that it’s surely a violation of rules to give the user ID and password of the government server for registration of birth and death to outsiders. Action will be taken if a complaint is received.