IT can be an effective tool to reduce corruption, says Finance Minister Muhith

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has said information technology can be effective in reducing corruption.

“The use of information-technology can minimise corruption. This can be an effective tool to cut malpractices,” said the minister at the ‘11th Government Discussion Forum for Electronic Identity 2015’ held at a Dhaka hotel on Tuesday.

Recalling a personal experience, he said: “I was once on the managing committee of a renowned educational institution. 

“There were many students, yet the institution was unable to pay its teachers’ salaries. But once I digitalised the admission process, earnings from it increased from Tk 80,000 to Tk 800,000.”

The finance minister noted that the country had only recently entered the ICT era.

“We were a little late but we are trying to digitalise our activities. We have succeeded in many areas,” he said.

Considerable progress had been made in the “trading sector”, he added, highlighting banking, mobile financial services, income tax payment, filing of returns, payment of admission fees and tender fees as the key areas.

Progress was being made in other sectors, too, he said.

The discussion was jointly hosted by the government’s ICT division and the Asia Pacific Smart Card Association (APSCA).

The forum is trying to determine how Bangladesh could replicate the use of Smart ID cards prevalent in various countries to provide services.  

The government has initiated steps to convert over 96 million national identity cards into smart NIDs with the help of the Election Commission.

Work on the project has already begun.

The two-day meet will feature eight seminars and 27 technical sessions, including two on Bangladesh.

State Minister of ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak presided over the inaugural programme.  

He said information technology was contributing to Bangladesh’s socio-economic development by cutting expenditure and boosting efficiency. 

“We started issuing NIDs in 2008. Now we are converting them to smart ID cards of international standards. They will contain 25 pieces of vital information about a citizen,” he added. 

The minister said the cards would give citizens easy access to services and help “increase transparency and fix accountability”. 

He said many were able to misuse mobile SIM cards since they were not registered and many NIDs were forged.

“We hope this will stop once we introduce smart cards,” the state minister added.