Awami League President Sheikh Hasina yesterday formed government for the third consecutive term as she took oath as the prime minister leading a 47-member council of ministers.

This is her fourth term in office. With the tenure from 1996 to 2001 and three terms in a row since 2008, she heads for a record 20 years as the prime minister.

President Abdul Hamid administered the oath of office and oath of secrecy to Hasina and her new cabinet colleagues while Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam conducted the programme at the Bangabhaban Darbar Hall. 

READ MORE: Heavyweights axed out

After the swearing-in was over, Hasina signed the oath of office and oath of secrecy.

Her new council of ministers includes 24 ministers, 19 state ministers and three deputy ministers.

She has dropped 34 of the previous cabinet, including AL heavyweights Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Mohammed Nasim and Matia Chowdhury, to induct 27 new faces and four former ministers into the council of ministers.

Of the 34 left out, 23 were full ministers, nine state ministers and two deputy ministers. Besides, Hasina chose two and dropped two of the four technocrat ministers who had resigned last month while forming the election-time government.

AL insiders say the prime minister picked new faces for the cabinet from the districts that had no representation in it for long. 

Immediately after the cabinet members took oath, the Cabinet Division published a gazette distributing portfolios among them and the previous cabinet got abolished with this.

According to the gazette, the PM herself is in charge of the Cabinet Division, Ministry of Public Administration, Ministry of Defence,

Armed Forces Division, Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, and Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.

Guests at the jam-packed glittering Durbar Hall included the prime minister's family members including younger sister Sheikh Rehana; former president AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, Chief Election Commissioner Nurul Huda, judges of the Supreme Court, MPs, other political leaders, chiefs of the three services, members of the diplomatic corps, journalists, distinguished personalities and top civil and military officials.

President Abdul Hamid is administering oath to the ministers and state ministers, of the Sheikh Hasina-led 47-member cabinet at the Bangabhaban yesterday. Photo: PID

Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad, who announced himself as the opposition leader in parliament, and his wife Raushan Ershad were not present at the ceremony.

Party insiders said Ershad couldn't make it due to illness. Five JP MPs including Fakhrul Imam, however, joined the programme.

Attired in a sky-blue jamdani saree, Hasina was looking confident. All gave her a standing ovation when she entered the Darbar Hall at 3:30pm. Minutes later President Hamid got in.

The ceremony began with the recitation from the holy Quran.

Hasina, elder daughter of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, took oath at 3:40pm pledging to preserve, protect and defend the national constitution and state sovereignty.

Later, the ministers, state ministers and deputy ministers took oath.

At the end of oath-taking ceremony, the president and the prime minister exchanged greetings with the new cabinet members and distinguished guests.

The PM exchanged pleasantries with the guests in the open field beside the Darbar Hall. She spent around an hour there.

Thousands thronged the Rajuk intersection to have a glimpse of the prime minister when she was on her way back home from the Bangabhaban.

The AL-led grand alliance achieved a landslide victory in the 11th Jatiya Sangsad election on December 30, bagging 288 seats. AL alone won 257 seats while opposition alliance Jatiya Oikyafront got seven.

After taking oath, Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader said members of the new cabinet must deliver as per the election manifesto of the party to retain their positions in the cabinet.

Photo: PID

“The new council of ministers has been formed aiming at fulfilling the pledges made by the prime minister in the election manifesto. She has formed a new cabinet which is capable of implementing the election manifesto,” he told reporters.  

"Our prime minister is very serious about performances of cabinet members. Her decision will be strict in this regard. Those who will fail to deliver will lose their positions.

“Implementation of the election manifesto is one of our major challenges.”

He added: "The people of the country have taken the new cabinet positively. The cabinet involving new and old faces will be more dynamic.

“No one will be able to remain a minister without performing his/her duty with upmost sincerity. The formation of new cabinet will not create any internal feud in Awami League as there is no discontent over its formation.”

Responding to another question about dropping some senior leaders from the cabinet, the AL leader said, "It's not exclusion as it can be seen as changes in responsibilities."

Mentioning that the government and the party are two separate entities, he said senior leaders will now work for making the party well-organised.

“We should not say that they [senior leaders] were left out from the new cabinet… Their responsibilities just have been changed. They should concentrate on the party activities.”

Asked about not including anyone from allies, Quader said it cannot be said that leaders of the 14-party alliance won't be in the cabinet in the future.

He said the alliance partners in the grand alliance will support the new cabinet although they are not its members. The decision of Jatiya Party to perform as opposition party in parliament is good for democracy, he added.

Awami League Chief Sheikh Hasina takes oath as the Prime Minister for the third time at the Bangabhaban in Dhaka, Bangladesh on January 7, 2019. Photo: Reuters

After taking oath as information minister, Dr Hasan Mahmud said he would consider providing state assistance to good media outlets that fail to perform smoothly due to various obstacles.

"I'll look into how the state can assist the credible and good media houses in the truest sense -- they may be newspapers or televisions that can't do good work for various barriers," he told reporters after taking oath as minister.

Shahab Uddin, new minister for environment, told this correspondent that his first priority will be to tackle the adverse effects of climate change.

The new minister for health, Jahid Maleq, told The Daily Star that his first priority will be to improve quality of service in public hospitals and implement the ministry's ongoing development projects.

Sheikh Hasina along with members of her new cabinet is scheduled to visit the National Martyrs' Memorial in Savar this morning, party sources said.

The Cabinet today approved the government’s plan to provide meals to nearly 1.5 crore primary school students in order to increase attendance and reduce the number of dropouts.

The National School Meal Policy 2019 was approved at the Cabinet’s regular meeting held at Prime Ministers Office (PMO) in Dhaka.

Photo: Rejaul Karim Byron

The policy aims to cover at least 30 per cent of the nutritional needs of a child through the school meal programme by 2023, Cabinet Secretary Md Shafiul Alam told reporters after the meeting.

The policy proposes to provide students warm and nutritious meals five days a week and fortified biscuits on one day.

To ensure minimum dietary diversity, meals will be prepared with fortified rice, vegetable oil, locally-grown fresh vegetables and, if possible, with eggs so that students get enough protein and micronutrients, according to the policy.

The menu will be selected in consultation with the schools’ managing committees, parents and locals.

Mothers will also be included in the programme to be overseen by an advisory committee comprising respected locals.

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has selected the right persons as members of the cabinet.

“There is no discontent between Awami League and its alliances over formation of the new cabinet…Our leader Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has selected the right persons for the cabinet,” he told reporters after placing wreaths at the portrait of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Dhanmondhi-32 in Dhaka.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said there is no discontent between AL and its alliances. “The cabinet could be reshuffled at any time. We didn’t give any condition to them. The 14-party is our alliance in our bad time,” he added.

He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina bestowed responsibilities upon the right persons. “We will make decision and do work in the greater interest of the people,” the minister added.

The cabinet today approved the draft of a law that will pave the way for depositing the idle money to the public exchequer as Tk 2,12,100 crore remained unused till May this year.

The approval came from a regular weekly meeting of the cabinet held with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair at the Secretariat here.

“The cabinet has approved the draft of the law for paving the way to help deposit the idle money to the public exchequer as the idle money is not now being invested for good purposes. The money has now been kept idle with various banks as FDR,” Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told a news briefing at the Secretariat.

He went on saying that the money will be used to carry out development works.

According to the information updated till May 2019, as many as Taka 2,12,100 crore of 68 autonomous, semi-autonomous, government statuary authorities, public non-financial corporation and self-governed organisations are kept idle, he informed.

Shafiul added: “Among the top 25 organisations, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has idle money of Taka 21,580 crore followed by Petro Bangla Taka 18,208 crore, Power Development Board (PDP) Taka 13,454 crore, Chittagong Port 9,913 crore and Rajuk Taka 4,030 crore.”

In accordance with the proposed law, the idle money of the organisations will be brought to the state exchequer after excluding the expenses for running the organisations, money for implementing various projects with their own finance and an additional 25 percent of the money for running the organisations to face any emergency situation, he added.

The cabinet yesterday approved a draft law that would allow the government to use “idle funds” of state-owned organisations for development work.

There are 68 state-owned autonomous organisation which have Tk 2,12,100 crore deposited in banks, said Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam after the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 

Among the 68 organisations, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has the highest Tk 21,580 crore of idle money deposited in banks followed by Petrobangla Tk 18,204 crore, Dhaka Power Distribution Authority Tk 13,454 crore, Chattogram Port Authority Tk 9,913 crore, and Rajuk Tk 4,030 crore. 

“This money is not being used for good purposes. So, the government policy is to bring the money to the national exchequer and spend it on public welfare related activities,” Shafiul said.

The cabinet secretary said once the law is enacted, the 68 organisations would deposit their excess funds to the exchequer. They would, however, keep their operational costs, unforeseen expenditure which would be no more than 25 percent of their operational cost, and money for pension and provident funds. 

The draft mentioned that the government needed the money to finance ongoing development projects and that the money belonged to the people and should be spent on their welfare. 

The cabinet decision, however, evoked reaction from bankers who fear the law would hit the cash-starved banking sector hard. 

Syed Mahbubur Rahman, chairman of the Association of Bankers, a platform of the managing directors of private banks, said the ongoing liquidity crisis would worsen if the government transferred the money from banks to the national exchequer.

State-owned banks would be hit hard as most of the money was with them, he said.

“State banks are now lending at 9 percent. But they may be unable to offer this rate as they will have fund shortages following the withdrawal of so much money,” said Mahbubur, also managing director of Dhaka Bank.  

Zahid Hossain, former lead economist at the World Bank Dhaka office, said, “The draft law has pros and cons. On the positive side ... The SOEs [state-owned enterprises] are not known for their efficiency in managing idle funds. There are also allegations of abuse of authority over idle funds as banks compete for getting deposits.

“If the government used this idle money to finance high-priority development projects, which would have otherwise been financed from expensive domestic sources, such as National Savings Certificates, it will be able to create fiscal space without cutting essential expenditures. 

“However, if this idle money is used for taking up politically motivated low value projects or say vanity projects, it could be wasteful. 

“Also, the government will have to define clearly what is idle money. After all, the SOEs need to have some cash for their day-to-day operational needs and this balance cannot be the same irrespective of the type of SOEs.” 

He said which state-owned enterprise would be allowed to keep how much must be well defined. 

A senior official of the finance division said the government decided to spend the idle money of enterprises that are making profits. 

For instance, the BPC used to incur huge losses. Every year the government paid to cover the losses. Now the BPC is making profits but it is depositing the money in banks, the official said.

The government is planning to spend the surplus money of such enterprises for development projects. In many countries, laws do not allow government-owned enterprises to keep their own additional funds.

The government would be making rules, after the law is enacted, specifying the operational expenses and other matters, the finance division official said.

Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute Bangladesh, said some banks, which depend on government funds to operate, would be in trouble if the government transferred the money suddenly.

He suggested that the government implement the decision gradually, allowing the banks time to adjust their liquidity position.

Mansur said the organisations might also face problems in expanding their activities. For instance, Chittagong Port Authority usually carries out its expansion programme with its own money, he said.

Some organisations might spend money unnecessarily fearing that their money would be going to the government, he added.