Same Syndicate, New Patron: Inside the Health Ministry’s Market for Postings

The networks that ran Bangladesh’s health sector in the Awami League years have found a new home under the BNP government — in the ministry’s own personnel wing, sources allege

KEY FINDINGS: A ministry-centred circle led by Joint Secretary (Personnel) Md. Mustafizur Rahman allegedly controls recruitment, transfers and promotions. Sources say he fixed the rates: Tk 5 lakh outside Dhaka, Tk 10 lakh around Dhaka, Tk 15 lakh inside the capital, and Tk 20 lakh or more for key posts. Many of the buyers are officials who allegedly grew rich through illicit means under the Awami League. Several postings, including Suhrawardy Hospital’s director and two top health posts in Barishal, were cancelled after scandal.

Reform of Bangladesh’s health sector was supposed to be one of the dividends of political change. Instead, say people familiar with the health ministry, the sector looks much as it did under the Awami League, with one important difference. The syndicates that once operated as loose, competing networks now answer to a single, powerful circle inside the ministry itself.

The gatekeeper

At the centre of that circle, sources allege, is Md. Mustafizur Rahman, the joint secretary in charge of the ministry’s personnel wing. Known in the ministry as the “right hand” of Health Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Hossain Bakul, Rahman is said to operate under the minister’s patronage. His post gives him control over recruitment, transfers, and promotions the levers that decide where every official sits and how far each career goes. Nothing happens against his wishes, according to those familiar with the wing.

A price for every chair

The sources describe a rate card that Rahman allegedly fixed himself: Tk 5 lakh for a transfer outside Dhaka, Tk 10 lakh for one around the capital, and Tk 15 lakh for a posting inside the city. Put simply, a chair in the capital costs three times as much as one in the districts. The more important the post, the higher the price: Tk 20 lakh or more in some cases. With each posting bringing in Tk 5–15 lakh, the trade in transfers alone runs into crores of taka.

Who can afford it

Not every official can raise such sums. Those who can, sources allege, are largely officials who amassed vast wealth illicitly during what critics call the “fascist” Awami League era. They have cash, a working knowledge of how to profit from graft, the boldness to do it, and a talent for keeping every influential quarter on side. That combination has made them the favourites of the sector’s current policymakers, and the old syndicates have simply redrawn their lines to fit the new government.

Appoint, scandal, revoke

The arrangement has produced a recurring embarrassment. Officials placed in attractive posts in exchange for money have repeatedly sparked controversy, forcing the ministry to cancel their postings. Sources cite the postings of the director of Suhrawardy Hospital, the divisional director of health in Barishal, and the Barishal civil surgeon among many such cases. Each followed the same script: a posting bought, a controversy, a hurried cancellation. Who signed off on those postings, and what happened to the money, are questions the episodes leave open.

Why it matters

People concerned say the episodes are eroding the government’s credibility. The deeper cost falls on patients. In a sector where a posting can cost Tk 20 lakh or more, the incentive for an official is to recover the outlay, not to fix crowded wards. Until the circle around the personnel wing faces an independent investigation, the promise of a cleaner health ministry is likely to remain just that: a promise.