BTRC Officials Face Scrutiny Over Routine Policy Work Labeled as Research for Financial Gain

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Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) officials are facing scrutiny following allegations that they claimed substantial financial honorariums for routine policy-making tasks by rebranding them as “research.”

Under the previous interim administration, BTRC officials involved in drafting the “Telecommunication Network and Licensing Policy” classified the project as a formal research initiative. Records indicate the commission approved 1.62 million taka in honorariums for these staff members. A separate proposal involving an additional 1.22 million taka for guidelines related to policy implementation is currently undergoing administrative review.

According to internal documents, a 10-member committee was formed in December 2023 to restructure the national telecommunications and licensing framework. While the committee was tasked with developing policy concepts and a roadmap for the government, it later submitted a research proposal with a total budget of 2.9 million taka to “ensure the research is conducted smoothly.”

The compensation structure for this project included multiple layers of payments, ranging from standard researcher fees and meeting attendance allowances to payments for workshop sessions and “special duty” bonuses. BTRC Commissioner Iqbal Ahmed, who headed the committee, was slated to receive 217,000 taka, encompassing his research fee, meeting attendance, and specialized service bonuses. Furthermore, 13 external experts invited to provide input on the policy were allocated 15,000 taka each for their participation in three meetings.

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BTRC Chairman Major General (Retd) Emdad Ul Bari defended the disbursements, asserting that the policy creation was a “strategic task” rather than a routine administrative function. He maintained that the inclusion of academic and industry stakeholders justified the research classification and that all payments adhered to existing government regulations.

However, the practice has drawn sharp criticism from transparency advocates. Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), condemned the move, describing the practice of officials claiming research honorariums and session-based meeting fees as an unethical abuse of power. He argued that such mechanisms facilitate the misappropriation of public funds and called for an immediate end to the use of meetings and seminars as vehicles for extracting additional compensation from the state treasury.

Industry experts who contributed to the process have also expressed reservations regarding the “research” designation. One expert, speaking on the condition of anonymity, noted that the meetings primarily involved the commission presenting pre-determined concepts rather than engaging in a genuine research inquiry, adding that the final policy significantly diverged from the feedback provided by invited participants.