Price of poor governance

A major incident causing tragic loss of lives can happen almost anywhere in the world but whenever that happens in our country, more often than not, the causes can be attributed to the shockingly poor governance of our country.

Analysing some major incidents from recent times supports this statement.

Bad governance has been found to be the main reason for almost every major incident, be it on the roads and waterways, or a building collapse or factory fire, or any other unexpected incident.

Take the latest tragic incident at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Four people, including a pregnant woman, were killed and three others injured when an ambulance ran over them on Saturday. This is not a mere accident.

The boy, an assistant to the driver, was allowed by the driver and the owner to drive the ambulance due to the culture of non-enforcement of laws. Plagued by corruption and irregularities, the BRTA, responsible for enforcing laws to operate motor vehicles, is unable to do so.

As usual, the tragic incident exposed another dangerous story-- the ambulance business is unregulated. There is no law or any regulatory body that either issues license or regulates the very necessary ambulance service. Again, the culprits are within the BRTA-Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, a department under the communication ministry, who opened the door for this business.

The Daily Star's report published yesterday shows how greedy people with the help of BRTA men are running ambulance businesses to make money from helpless people. Beat-up microbuses are registered with the BRTA with bribes. The officials of the regulatory body permit these vehicles to be turned into ambulances even though they lack the required life-saving equipment or accessories for comfort of the patients. Thanks to lack of governance in this sector, they have been running this illegal business. Just as a driver needs a license to drive, a microbus needs a license to be used as an ambulance. Negligence in this case has led to the "murder" of four. Who is responsible for that? 

There are many other instances of tragic incidents in recent times caused by poor governance. 

On September 10, just ahead of the Eid-ul Azha this year, at least 34 workers were killed in a blaze in the Tampaco Foils Ltd in Tongi. The boiler explosion which resulted in fire and structural collapse of the building wreaked havoc on workers' lives. There was alleged negligence on the part of the office of the chief inspector of boilers, a department under the industries ministry. The exploded boiler was not maintained properly. The department did not inspect it. Moreover there were excessive amounts of chemicals stored unlawfully in the factory.    

The department of inspection for factories and establishments, a wing of the labour ministry, also did not inspect the factory to ensure workplace safety and compliance in Tampaco. This is another example of poor governance leading to "killing" of people.

The Rana Plaza tragedy in Savar, the biggest ever industrial disaster in recent history, also demonstrates the very poor state of governance.

A ruling party man had built the nine-storey building ignoring building codes. Reportedly, he even grabbed the land on which he had built Rana Plaza. In 2013, it collapsed, having killed more than 1100 garment workers.

Being a ruling party man, it was not difficult for the owner to continue possession of the grabbed land and he did not need to follow laws to build Rana Plaza. Even the law enforcers, the Industrial Police, after being informed about the cracks in the building, could not enforce the law as the building owner was a ruling party man who was blessed by the ruling party's local MP.

There are more tragedies caused by poor governance. The nine-storey Spectrum Garments at Savar collapsed in April 2005, killing 64. The son-in-law of a then ruling BNP MP was its owner. Again, the five-storey Phoenix Group at Tejagon collapsed in February 2006, killing 21 and a five-storey residential building at Begunbari collapsed in June 2010 killing 25. All the buildings were built violating the building codes. Rajuk, responsible for enforcing the building code, failed due to its unscrupulous officials who allowed the constructions.

A fire at Tazreen Fashion in November 2012 killed more than 115 garments workers. There were more fires in garments factories causing more deaths.

Take another example of poor governance. People might have forgotten the Nimtoli devastating fire incident of June 2010, which instantly killed 117 people. A chemical warehouse on the ground floor of a five-storey residential building was the source of the fire. Hundreds of warehouses were set up in the residential area in the old part of Dhaka by bribing the government department that issues licenses for the warehouse for chemicals.

The violation of laws by crooked officials of BIWTA and owners of unfit water vessels have become another area of frequent manmade disasters. One of the worst launch capsizes took place in March 2012 on the Meghna river, killing no fewer than 145 passengers underlining poor governance.

For poor governance, the road network is not free of the curse of corruption and violation of laws. Untrained persons get driving licenses, and unfit vehicles get road permits. In addition, there is reckless driving. This causes frequent road accidents killing a huge number and maiming many every year.

All of the above incidents are glaring examples of the poor governance of many government departments. There is no dearth of laws. But failure to enforce them keeps rule of law a fantasy. Even they are not held accountable for their failures that cause disasters. People's lives and properties are not even worth the papers the laws are written on. 

Collectively, their failure exposes overall governance failure. All efforts to establish good governance and rule of law will fail until the various departments play their due roles. They must be made accountable for their failure to do their mandated jobs. Otherwise, tragedies will continue, showing how poor governance "kills" people.