March 28, 2024, 9:23 pm


Shamiur Rahman

Published:
2020-12-14 01:04:48 BdST

Fighting Corruption at MPO-listed Institutions: New policy on cards


The government is formulating a policy to ensure transparency in all incomes and expenditures, including salaries, admission fees, session fees and board examination fees, of the Monthly Pay Order (MPO)-listed educational institutions across the country.

The educational institutions will have to collect all types of fees and salaries through the prescribed bank accounts after formulation and implementation of the policy.

Official sources said the education ministry is formulating a policy on the instructions of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina amid widespread allegations of corruption against many schools and colleges.

After implantation of the policy, there will be no way to collect cash from students.

The policy titled “MPO-listed educational institutions income and expenditure policy-2020” will come into effect next academic year.

A virtual meeting was held on Thursday, led by Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni, to finalise the draft of the policy. Deputy Minister for Education Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury, Secondary and Higher Education Division Secretary Md Mahbub Hossain and the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education Director General Prof Syed Golam Faruk participated at the meeting.

Sources said the meeting was held from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm on Thursday where the draft policy was presented by the committee concerned for taking the next course of action.

After the long discussion, the education minister and the deputy minister for education finalised the important issues and cancelled few proposals of the policy.

Dipu Moni has also asked the officials to complete the work quickly to implement this policy next academic year.

According to the draft policy, the monthly tuition and other fees of the students will have to receive through the prescribed bank accounts instead of collecting the fees in cash.

All educational institutions will open bank accounts. A finance committee consisting of three senior teachers should be formed led by the president of the MPO-listed school managing committee and the college governing body, it said.

It was also mentioned that principals or headmasters of educational institutions will submit requisition to the finance committee at the beginning of every month, seeking money required to conduct the day-to-day activities of the institutions along with the bill vouchers and statements of the previous month.

The committee will release the money after verifying the requisition list.

All bill vouchers must be reserved for presentation before the governing body.

An internal audit committee consisting of three teachers from the MPO-listed school-college should be formed and the committee will submit the audit report to the managing committee of the institution and DSHE by January 31.

It was also mentioned in the draft policy that the bank accounts of the educational institutions will be conducted under the joint signatures of the finance committee chief and one other member of the committee.

The government took the initiative to formulate the policy amid allegations of irregularities and corruption against the principals of some colleges across the country.

Earlier, the education ministry formed a seven-member committee, led by Joint secretary Mukesh Chandra Biswas, to formulate the policy.

Rasheda K. Choudhury, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), said, “There is a lack of transparency in the country’s private educational institutions for long and the institutions are collecting different fees from students as per their wish. This will be stopped through it.”

She said, “There are two challenges in implementing this. In one of them, the education ministry should be vigilant to strengthen the regular monitoring system and not to be overwhelmed of the issues by the influence of the president and members of the committee.”

“However, this is a good initiative of the government and students will be benefitted through it,” the educationist said.

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