Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday (July 15, 2024) slammed the female students of Dhaka University’s Ruqayyah Hall, who chanted slogans by calling themselves razakars -collaborators of Pakistani forces in 1971. “I felt sorry when I heard yesterday the students of Ruqayyah Hall calling themselves razakars. Do they know what had taken place there on March 25, 1971?  Some 300 girls were killed and 40 girls were raped and taken to the Pakistani camps,” she said. The premier said this while addressing the signing ceremony of the Annual Performance Agreement (APA) of the ministries and divisions for the 2024-2025 fiscal year at Shapla Hall of the Prime Minister’s Office. Get knowledge about science and tech to build a better Bangladesh: PM Hasina urges youth Citing several gruesome incidents carried out by the Pakistani forces in 1971, she said the female students didn’t see these oppressions on streets in 1971. “So, they don’t feel ashamed of calling themselves Razakars,” she added. The PM said it is unfortunate that girls now chant such slogans. “What country are we in? What spirit do they believe in? What lessons did they learn? What did they learn? It is my question,” she added. In the function, the APA Award for FY 2022-23 and Integrity Award for FY 2023-24 were distributed among the government offices for their excellent performance in APA implementation and rendering services respectively. Read more: Clash erupts between quota protestors, BCL activists at DU

A fire that quickly tore through an apartment block in the capital's Gulshan Sunday evening was brought under control after four hours, the authorities said. A man, aged around 30, was killed after the deadly fire engulfed the multistorey building. He was declared dead at 10:25pm after being rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Inspector Bachchu Mia, in-charge of the hospital's police outpost, said. "Three people were taken to the hospital with burn injuries from the building, which got engulfed in huge flames. Also, 22 people – nine men, 12 women, and one child – have been rescued so far," Anwarul Islam, warehouse inspector of the Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters media cell, said. "The fire broke out on the seventh floor of a 12-storey building in Gulshan-2 at 6:59pm. However, the reasons for the fire mishap and the extent of damage could not immediately be confirmed," he added. In the visuals emerging from the site, huge flames coupled with thick clouds of black smoke were seen billowing out of the building. The number of firefighting units responding to the blaze grew to 19, and the responders tried valiantly to tame the flames, Anwarul said. Later, the army and air force also joined the rescue operation.      

The annual performance agreements (APAs) 2022-23 were signed between the prime minister's office and its attached seven agencies including Ashrayan-2 project on Thursday. PMO senior secretary Tofazzel Hossain Miah and the heads of the agencies inked the agreements on behalf of their respective sides at the PMO. In the APAs, the seven agencies made different commitments over their performances for the fiscal year of 2022-23. Also read: Increase oxygen supply, Corona beds: PMO Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Ahmad Kaikaus and Principal Coordinator for SDG Affairs at the PMO Zuena Aziz spoke at the signing event presided over by Tofazzel Hossain Miah. The seven agencies are Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority (BEZA), Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority (BEPZA), National Skills Development Authority (NSDA), Public Private Partnership (PPP) Authority, NGO Affairs Bureau and Ashrayan-2 Project. The APA is a result-based working plan to reach the desired goal through increasing the efficiency and accountability of the public servant. In the 2014-15 fiscal year, the Awami League government introduced the APA method in a bid to get better performance from all the ministries and divisions. In the process, all the subordinate departments, agencies or offices also sign the APAs with their respective ministries, divisions or higher offices.

A workshop on "Annual Performance Agreement (APA) and National Integrity Strategy (NIS)" was held at the Foreign Service Academy on Saturday. Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam attended the workshop as the chief guest while Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen presided over it. Ambassador Shabbir Ahmad Chowdhury, Secretary (West); Ambassador Mashfee Binte Shams, Secretary (East); and other senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and Cabinet Division were also present at the programme conducted by Mehdi Hasan, Director General (Admin) of MoFA. The Foreign Secretary talked about the initiatives taken and services provided by the MoFA in 2021, including unified website, digitalising the consular services through mygov platform, implementing e-nothi and d-nothi, mofa archives, Government Resource Planning (GRP), Branding Bangladesh. Read: FBCCI calls for extension of loan moratorium till June He also discussed Neural Network - a new initiative of MoFA. Two officers of the rank of joint secretary talked on APA and NIS with presentations. This was followed by a question-answer session. The challenges that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs faces to reflect their diplomatic and consular activities properly in APA due to the nature of the work of the Foreign Office and its Missions abroad were discussed precisely. The officers from the Cabinet Division suggested ways to overcome these challenges. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cabinet Division agreed that by having discussions, the challenges can be properly addressed and solved. The importance of proper documentation and ensuring training on APA for officers were also discussed. Read: Serajul Islam Chy, Afsan Chy, 4 others get BRAC Bank-Samakal Lit Award After a presentation on NIS by the Joint Secretary, Cabinet Division, Cabinet Secretary explained the background of formulation of the National Integrity Strategy (NIS) and demonstrated its necessity and significance with some examples. Rector, Foreign Service Academy and Inspector General of Missions, Ambassador Asad Alam Siam expressed his gratitude to the Cabinet Secretary for his presence in this interactive session between MoFA and Cabinet Division.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said the aim of her government is to build a fully service-oriented administration to ensure the welfare of people. “Our aim is to build an administration that will serve people and ensure its accountability to people,” she said at a function marking the signing of the Annual Performance Agreement (APA) of ministries and their subordinate bodies. The programme was arranged at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium with the PM joining it from her official residence Ganobhaban. Mentioning that remaining in power does not mean enjoying government facilities, Hasina said, “We’ve our responsibilities to the people. Our responsibilities are to ensure the welfare of people and their interests and change their fate,” she said. Also read: Promote right persons in Army: PM Hasina At this time of the Covid-19 pandemic, she said, the government aims to make sure that mass people must not face suffering in any way. So, the government has fulfilled their demand for food and is providing medical facilities and assisting them economically to get rid of the curse of pandemic,” she said. She mentioned that the government from the beginning of the pandemic started giving stimulus packages and announced 28 packages worth Tk 131,641 crore and implemented those. The Prime Minister thanked all for their sincere efforts which resulted in keeping the national economy moving since March 2020. As coronavirus is a global problem, Bangladesh alone has nothing to do, she said, adding:  “We’re trying to contain the transmission of the virus, protect the lives and livelihoods of people keeping the socioeconomic condition moving.” She also said the government wants to make sure that its efforts to change the fate of people should not stop in any way. “Coronavirus virus put the whole world into a deep crisis. This type of crisis was never seen in the past. It has hit socioeconomic development hardest unlike any time before. But the painful fact is that the government was moving the country towards development before the pandemic that suffered a huge shock.” The Prime Minister thanked the administration, law enforcement agencies and armed forces for their courageous role. “They worked in a very abnormal situation. Or else, the situation could have been much worse.” Also read: Increase oxygen supply, Corona beds: PMO Regarding vaccination, the Prime Minister said her government has long been working tirelessly to ensure it free for all. “We’ve taken the move so that all could get vaccines gradually, we’ve started giving vaccines; it’s coming. We’ll procure all vaccines that will be needed for the people of the country.  We want no one to be left out from the vaccination,” she said. State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam, Finance Division’s Senior Secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder and ICT Division Secretary NM Zeaul Alam also spoke at the programme. The senior secretaries and secretaries in charge of various ministries and divisions handed over a copy of their respective Annual Performance Agreement to the prime minister. The cabinet secretary, on behalf of the prime minister, signed the APA. Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq received the APA on behalf of the prime minister.  Under the agreement, the ministries will set their visions, missions and strategic goals in line with the development priorities of the government, take short- and long-term plans as per budgetary allocations. The government introduced the method of the APA in the 2014-2015 fiscal year for the public sector to ensure institutional transparency, accountability, proper utilisation of resources and, above all, enhancing the institutional efficiencies. Also read: Can’t put lives of students in danger: PM about school, college closure The main purposes of introducing APA are moving the focus of the ministry from process-orientation to result-orientation, and providing an objective and fair basis to evaluate the overall performance of the ministries and divisions at the end of the year. The APA is an internal mechanism of the civil administration from top to the grassroots level to ensure accountability of the government officials aimed at evaluating their yearly performances and making them accountable to their responsibilities. The government has signed the APA with the ministries and their subordinate bodies which also included divisional, district and upazila-level offices of the government. Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq, on behalf of the Prime Minister, handed over the APA and national integrity service awards among 10 winners. 

Putting emphasis on discipline and quality administration in higher education UGC Chairman Professor Dr. Kazi Shahidullah said good governance must be established to take the higher education forward

The University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh on Sunday signed Annual Performance Agreements (APA) with 15 public universities of the country for fiscal year 2020-2021 under the Performance Management Framework Policy of the government.

Amid widespread criticisms over mismanagement and irregularities in the health sector, Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Monday warned of taking prompt action if any irregularity in the sector is reported.