Desk Report, 04 August:

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said power is not a matter of consumerism to her, but a great responsibility to take forward the country to give a prosperous life to the people.

“To somebody power is a matter of consumerism and to somebody it’s a great responsibility to the nation, and we are the next one,” she said while addressing the signing ceremony of Annual Performance Agreement (APA) with the ministries and divisions at her Tejgaon office here today.

Sheikh Hasina said, “We have seen nature of different political parties in the past. But the party, which has originated from grassroots people with a vision to change the socio-political condition of the people, have different thinking for unlikely those people who grab power suddenly.”BSS

The prime minister said political parties must take into their consideration what they give people in exchange of taking their votes. The Awami League government could bring many successes for the nation and living quality of the people has been improved at least to a certain level because of the party’s good thinking for the people, she said.

Urging the government officials to work sincerely to implement the works under APA, the Prime Minister said Bangladesh would certainly be able to achieve its cherished economic goal by 2021 and 2041 if everybody works hard a little bit with devotion.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh now has acquired the capacity to implement ninety percent of its budget with its own resources. So the civil servants should remain careful to check misuse of the public fund. Every project should be taken considering the benefit of the people, she said.

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith and minister for Public
Administration Syed Ashraful Islam, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Safiul Alam, PM’s Principal Secretary Abul Kalam Azad addressed the function.

Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs Nasima Begum and Secretary of the Cabinet Division (coordination and reforms) N M Zeaul Alam also spoke on the occasion.

The senior secretaries and secretaries in charge of various ministries and divisions handed over a copy of their respective Annual Performance Agreement to the Prime Minister.

The APA is an internal mechanism of the civil administration to ensure accountability of the government officials aimed at evaluating yearly performances of the civil servants and making them accountable to their responsibilities.

The government, for the third year, has signed the Annual Performance Agreement (APA) with the ministries and divisions which has also included divisional and district level offices of the government.

Under the agreement the ministries ascertain vision, mission and strategic goals in consistence with the development priorities of the government, short and long term plans, and allocation and business and budgetary allocation of the ministry.

The Prime Minister hoped that the APA would help improve the efficiency and accountability of the government offices and expedite the implementation of government policies and programmes under an intensive monitoring system.