Corruption is rampant in Dhaka city corporations’ procurement of mosquito repellents, according to a graft watchdog report.
Transparency International Bangladesh unveiled its findings on overcoming challenges in the control of Aedes mosquitoes during a media call on Wednesday (Sept 25).
“Dengue is a global problem. All our neigbouring countries have it,” TIB chief Dr Iftekharuzzaman said during the media call.
He added that the mosquito-borne virus has spread throughout the country due to “scattered, ineffective programmes undertaken for eyewash, the limited scope of the city corporations and concerned stake holders in mosquito-control drives and irregularities and graft.”
The TIB report said that the city corporations prioritized chemical control although a combination of environmental, organic, chemical and technical steps were needed to keep the dengue situation under control.
It said that the destroying larvae were given more priority “for show” as it creates more opportunities for graft.
“One city corporation using ineffective repellents while the other not having any medicine for four months, have facilitated the dengue menace,” the report said.
During the media call, it was revealed that Dhaka North City corporation didn’t have medicines for a few months as the company didn’t supply the medicines on time. DNCC blacklisted the company but it didn’t stop Dhaka South from procuring medicines from them.
TIB, however, was unable to find whether the company was black-listed on correct grounds.
According to the report, 40 percent of the money spent on repellents in the 2018-19 fiscal went to loss.
It added that most of the machines for spraying repellents don’t work and the fuel meant for the fogger machines are sold-off and the larvaecides are thrown away.
It said dengue spread even more due to lack of coordination between the concerned organisations and lack of manpower. Moreover, since the survey on dengue was Dhaka-centred, other districts couldn’t be warned beforehand.