Prime minister's Principal Secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus on Saturday lambasted the critics for their allegations of corruption against the government in running Covid-19 vaccination programmes and mega projects.
While speaking as the chief guest at a seminar, he said the government had been carrying out vaccination activities against the coronavirus quite successfully.
"Unfortunately, this has been questioned. I headed the committee and negotiated each purchase. You say where the corruption has taken place?" he questioned.
He said major purchases were done through Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB), who endorsed each purchase.
Another purchase was 30 million doses from India's Serum Institute, but the government did not take half of the deal as there was no need, he said.
"We only paid for half of the vaccines," he said.
"We're blamed for committing an average corruption of Tk 69 for vaccine purposes. What a joke! We
should be proud of the way we have been administering the vaccines," he said.
The principal secretary said too many predictions could be made through various assumptions that basically disrupted the aspirations.
He said the CPD (Centre for Policy Dialogue) had made allegations of corruption in the mega projects.
Matarbari (under construction deep sea port) and metro rail projects are supported by the JICA and each transaction is vetted by them, he said.
"That means, you (CPD) want to say the Japanese government is our partner in corruption? What is this? You often make us corrupted. Are you making a mockery of us," he said with a tone of frustration.
"We're not saying that there is no corruption, it takes place on the lower level and we're ready to rectify this," he added.
