A learning trip that benefits no one

It was shocking to learn that a team of soon-to-retire engineers and an administration official have been chosen for an expensive learning trip to the UK and the US as part of a Tk 195-crore project. As a report by The Daily Star on Saturday revealed, of the four officials approved by the water resources ministry, one is a senior engineer who would retire in December. Another engineer has about five months before he too would retire. Yet another is an admin cadre officer. The spurious reasoning provided for their selection—that they will learn about digging canals, protecting river banks, restoring embankments, etc.—falls flat on its face when one considers that their experience and the knowledge that will be "acquired" are unlikely to help the said project in any way. What new knowledge can a couple of experienced engineers gather on something that they had been doing for decades? How are they going to use this "knowledge" in a project which is now midway through its tenure—and especially when they will soon no longer be a part of it? And what business does a non-technical officer have on a trip meant for technical personnel?

The whole idea of the two-week trip seems ill-advised. It will likely benefit only the selected officials, and no one else, even though their all-expenses-paid trip will be funded from the public exchequer. There is usually a process of selecting officials for such trips which, clearly, wasn't followed in this instance. Unfortunately, such foreign trips by government officials are not uncommon. Earlier in November, the water resources ministry also sanctioned another "experience sharing" trip by eight officials on similar grounds, and one of the officials chosen for the tour is a WDB chief engineer who would also retire in December. Such blatant waste of taxpayers' money is unacceptable. We urge the government to investigate these ill-advised trips and hold to account those involved in the selection and approval process.