After appointing the chairman of Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation (Petrobangla) again from the administration, the question has arisen, has the post of Petrobangla chairman permanently gone to the possession of the bureaucrats? Recently, another officer of the administration cadre, Janendra Nath Sarkar, was removed and additional secretary Rezanur Rahman was appointed as chairman of Petrobangla.
During the previous Awami League government, professor of geology at Dhaka University. Hossain Mansoor was removed and Ishtiaq Ahmed was appointed as additional secretary of Petrobangla. Since then, there has been criticism of the government's appointment of bureaucrats in technical posts.
According to sources, the appointment of bureaucrats as chairman in Petrobangla started due to the dispute between Professor Mansoor and the former government energy advisor Taufiq E Elahi Chowdhury Bir Bikram. Another influential secretary of the government at that time was Abul Kalam Azad. Later he was elected Member of Parliament. Abul Kalam Azad appointed Amla as chairman of Petrobangla. Due to the bureaucracy and the technical knowledge of this sector, the experienced people could not return to Petrobangla.
After Ishtiaq Ahmed, another additional secretary of the government, Abul Mansur. Faizullah was appointed chairman of Petrobangla. After that, ABM Abdul Fattaha, Nazmul Hossain, Janendra Nath Sarkar were all additional secretaries in the administration cadre.
Officials concerned say that most of them left Petrobangla as secretaries, but Janendra Nath was removed from Petrobangla and put on compulsory retirement.
Generally, the government appoints technically experienced people in such technical posts. In Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) employees are gradually promoted and appointed as Chairman. In the past, during the military rule in Bangladesh, a person from the military was appointed as the chairman of Petrobangla, but the veterans of this sector have always been appointed as the chairman of Petrobangla.
According to the concerned people, according to the law, there is no interference in the appointment of any administrative cadre in Petrobangla. But an Additional Secretary spent a few days here before his promotion as Secretary. Due to the busyness of coming and going, he had to leave before he could understand any of Petrobangla's work.
The speed at which Petrobangla was working during Professor Mansoor's time was no longer possible after appointing bureaucrats to the post of chairman. Many people say that we have to depend on imports due to the loss of Petrobangla route in Bangladesh due to energy shortage.
After the political change in student protests in August, the idea was to reform the institutions and put real veterans in charge. But Petrobangla followed the old path.
Those concerned say that for the sake of development, it is important to appoint professionals in electricity companies like Petrobangla, Bapex, or other gas companies.
If you want to know about this, Professor M. Tamim told Bangla Tribune, we need technical leadership in this sector. Whoever takes this leadership must know how to extract gas in the gas field, how to explore, how to increase production – these things. If you do not know how to speed up the work? It is difficult to do these things after being educated by others. That's why I think experienced people need to come.
Badrul Imam said, Petrobangla's activities are not completely administrative. It involves various field-based, geological works. So the chairman who will be the chairman must have field-based experience of these works. As we have seen in the past, there were eminent geologists in this position, eminent petroleum engineers. It is easy for them to understand the flow of gas exploration, where to focus etc. For an administrative officer, who is coming from the administration, it takes a lot of time to understand these oil and gas issues. So people should be placed here who understand things very well beforehand, who have good experience
