South City Still has not Paid the Prime Minister’s Eid Bonus Money

Sanitation workers received last month’s salary a few days ago but still have not received the Eid bonus announced by the Prime Minister.

Several sanitation workers, speaking anonymously said, “Dhaka North City gives a Tk 10,000 bonus, while Dhaka South gives only Tk 4,000. On top of that, we still have not received the special bonus introduced by the new Prime Minister.”

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman handed over bonus cheques for sanitation workers on 22 May. By 26 May, workers in all other city corporations had received their bonuses. Sylhet City Corporation distributed bonuses on 23 May. Dhaka North, Chattogram, Khulna, and Gazipur city corporations paid them on 24 May. Rajshahi, Mymensingh, Cumilla, and Narayanganj city corporations distributed bonuses on 25 May. Rangpur City paid bonuses to 855 workers the following day. Naturally, DSCC workers are now asking: where did their bonus money go?

Several DSCC officials said the South City Corporation spent the bonus funds on other sectors due to a financial crisis. According to them, the decision was made on the advice of Chief Accounts Officer Md Ali Monsur.

Officials also said the bonus would be paid later from holding tax collections, although such revenue remains uncertain. Previously, DSCC imposed surcharges on holding taxes paid after November. This year, however, it announced a waiver of surcharges on overdue holding taxes.

This reporter spoke by phone with DSCC Chief Accounts Officer Md Ali Monsur regarding various issues. However, when asked about the sanitation workers’ bonuses, he responded, “I cannot hear anything.” Subsequent calls went unanswered.

When contacted, DSCC Administrator Md Abdus Salam told Agamir Somoy, “The Prime Minister’s bonus for sanitation workers was paid long ago.”

However, when informed that workers had not received the money, he replied, “I am looking into the matter.” After this response, repeated calls to Chief Accounts Officer Md Ali Monsur found his line busy, but he did not answer.

A short time later, the DSCC administrator called back and asked the reporter, “Are you an investigative journalist?” When the issue of the bonus money was raised again, he quickly said, “It will be distributed within three days. The delay happened because we planned to distribute it through an event.” This contradicted his earlier statement claiming the bonus had already been paid.

Sources say DSCC has a total of 4,909 sanitation workers. The Prime Minister allocated Tk 5,000 for each worker, amounting to more than Tk 24.5 million in total. Asked whether a city corporation could spend such allocated funds elsewhere, Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), Iftekharuzzaman said, “Such actions amount to direct corruption.”

He added that DSCC was already discriminating against sanitation workers by offering a lower routine bonus than Dhaka North City. Now, workers have also been deprived of their rightful dues, which he described as an abuse of power.

Calling the administrator’s contradictory statements irresponsible, he said the Prime Minister’s allocation was a special gift and that it was unacceptable for the administrator to be unaware of how the funds were handled.

Urban planners have also described the failure to pay sanitation workers their bonuses as inhumane. Professor Akhtar Mahmood told Agamir Somoy, “Spending money allocated for one sector on another is a punishable offence. Even if someone does so, proper justification must be provided.”

Urging authorities not to play with the livelihoods of sanitation workers, he said, “Sanitation workers are among the poorest employees of the city corporation. They keep the city clean, so they should be kept satisfied. Failing to pay their Eid bonus even now is unfortunate.”