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Climate Change

'Fund use must be transparent'

Staff correspondent
Transparency and accountability in spending climate funds would help the country attract foreign funds in future to combat climate change, said Saber Hossain Chowdhury, chairman of the all-party parliamentary panel on climate change, yesterday.
An audit of the funds spent so far is also required to ascertain the value of money and prevention of resource waste in various ways including corruption, he said while speaking at a discussion at the capital' s Brae Centre.
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB)organised the discussion on the challenges of good governance in spending climate funds.
Bangladesh has so far created a $300 million Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) with its own money and a $125 million Climate Change Resilient Fund (BCCRF) with foreign money. The former is governed by a high-powered trustee board while the latter is managed by the World Bank.
At least three out of 83 government projects financed by BCCTF have been plagued by gross anomalies, lack of planning and indications of resource misappropriation at implementation and project formulationstages, saidMohua Rouf, an assistant project coordinator of TIB, while presentingTIB findings.
Relief and Rehabilitation Directorate undertook a Tk 24.5 crore project under BCCTF to build 2003 cyclone-resilient houses for the Aila-affected in Khulna andSatkhira.
But the houses they built turned out to be low quality four-pillared sheds without walls and provisions for privacy, personal hygiene, and sewerage, and are exposed to storms, cold and sun, saidMohua.
Bangladesh Water Development Board under-
took a Tk 24 crore project to build a cross dam connecting different Chars from Patuakhali to Bhola without environmental and social impact assessment.
In the project proposal they failed to mention that they would build the dam through a reserve forest and cut 30,000 trees, she said. As a result the project was stalled in the face of objections from the forest department.
On the other hand, the forest department undertook a Tk 12 crore afforestation project in coastal area without the required free land and any coordination with the water board, she said.
Referring to cyclone-resilient houses, Saber Hossain said that they would make affected people's life even more vulnerable.
A national forum comprising parliament members, local governments and civil society representatives could ensure climate projects are rational, he added.
Dr Hasan Mahmud, minister for environment and forests, said that the relevant ministry is responsible for preventing anomalies and lack of accountability in project implementation.
He said that his ministry releases climate funds through a lengthy and rigorous process involving a
technical committee and trustee board.
Water development board received the highest allocation of 28 percent of the BCCTF followed by Forest Department and Relief and Rehabilitation Directorate with 13 and 10.5 percent respectively, but so far no project by any NGO has gotten any allocation.
Quazi Kholiquzzaman, coordinator of government's climate negotiation team, said that out of 5,000 NGO projects, only around 60 finally qualified for allocation.
NGO representatives from Khulna, Barisal, Barguna, Patuakhali and other parts of the country spoke at the discussion.
Hafiz Uddin Khan, former advisor to the caretaker government, chaired the morning session while the afternoon session was chaired by TIB's Trustee Board Chairperson Sultana Kamal and moderated by Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director ofTIB.