Way to demolish the ‘Sabrina-ism’ in public sector

The increase of news about investigations of fraud in various media in Bangladesh has made most of us, particularly those who are educated and lived away for a long-period of time, to realize that there are still a lot of cunning behaviors, deceptions and dishonesty in public sector of the country. Scam or rip-off or fraud is a criminal act and a bad practice that harms others, no matter whether it takes place in public sector or private sector. Fraud in the 21st Century society is more in the form of manipulation practices in healthcare and financial reporting and in accounting etc.

Speaking about scam in health-reporting, the recent Sabrina-ism in the DGHS under the Ministry of Health, Government of Bangladesh reminds us how large a negative impact can be on the people in the country. It has resulted high social-costs and monetary-costs and has undermined the quality of government's communications/services during this crisis and beyond. In this episode, Sabrina was a money-sucking machine in the frontline and the DGHS was a money-making machine under the watchdog of the Ministry of Health, Government of Bangladesh.

After revealing the crime, Sabrina group of the frontline was sent to prison, the leadership of the DGHS has resigned on his own desire and the Minister is still on Government payroll. Yes, I am talking about Public Sector's Administration in Bangladesh, which raises questions: 1) what is Sabrina-ism and 2) what can be learned from it?  This effort takes on the challenges to answer the questions posed.

Dr Sabrina Arif Chowdhury, who was employed as government surgeon in the National Heart Institute and Hospital under the DGHS, MoH, was directly involved in forging Covid-19 certificates since the beginning of COVID-19 consequences in Bangladesh. Although she was working with Government of Bangladesh, she gave several interviews to media as the Chairman of JKG Health Care. She was also employed as Chairman of JKG Health Care, the DGHS and the MoH now like to call it "a secrete employment", even though Sabrina was previously praised by the authority(s) in multi-phases in here profession.

In law enforcement custody, Sabrina revealed that she had played important roles in obtaining permission from the DGHS for Covid-19 sample collection, but her partner misused the opportunity and issued fake certificates without conducting tests. Apart from issuing fake Covid-19 certificates, JKG has also made a good amount of money by providing telemedicine service, for which they were not permitted. In this episode, Sabrina was working as money-sucker in the frontline and DGHS was becoming money-making machine where the MoH was the watchdog under administrative setup.

However, the leadership of the MoH, a political-appointee, appointed by the current leadership of the nation was witnessing the entire Sabrina-ism in healthcare-service arena. However, except Sabrina et al., the leadership(s) of the relevant government entity(s) is appeared to be blessed for now. In the recent Parliamentary Budget Meetings, loud-voices on the issue were raised before the political leadership(s) of the nation, but no response was produced.

Despite the fact that the COVID-19 has caused more or less crisis worldwide, the COVID-19 was a blessing for the parties involved in the said episode in Bangladesh. I called this episode the Sabrina-ism. The Sabrina-ism can be an educational and useful to authority(s) country-wise such as Bangladesh, if the leadership of the county requires initiating an investigation on probable misuses during COVID-19 crisis and beyond for detecting department-wise public sector frauds. It can further be helpful designing fraud-preventive measures in technology-driven world for ensuring effective outcomes for the interest of the society we live in.

Today we live in world of business mentality "no mother feeds baby unless a baby cries" in human-society country-wise where Bangladeshi society is no exception. Accordingly, it is our expectation to make the best contribution to the creation of clean state governance from corruption, collusion and nepotism through the development of behavior of supervisory-officers who are aware of their profession and responsibilities. Thus, they have the ability to detect fraud, dishonesty, and manipulation done intentionally or unintentionally without any pressure, intervention and benefits from any party.

In economics, integrity and honesty must be a fixed price in upholding the profession, being able to be honest without compromising the quality of own efforts on duty or beyond for ensuring quality that guarantees that no system is violated. With this medication and its proper use, the Sabrina-ism could have been prevented for greater interest of the nation we dearly love. Rather granting one walk-away with a claim "water is too cold" and blessing other-one, they both could have been independently investigated.  But in reality, they both are today on government payroll, which probably have inspired the system, in turn, taxpayers were forced witnessing the incident of Journalist Rozina, who is believed to be innocent by most of this country and beyond.

My effort here only discusses a small part of the method that can be used to minimize and even eliminate fraud in the public sector in Bangladesh. This is because there are still many ways and approaches, which may vary from area to area within a sector that can be used. Therefore, the spirit of bureaucratic reform for establishing good and clean governance is expected. Further studies are needed in order to completely eradicate fraud on Bangladesh soil.
Akim M Rahman, PhD (OSU, USA)