Selim Chowdhury Hira:
Kazi Arfina Wahid, the Upazila Assistant Programmer (ICT) officer in Laksam, has been absent from the office for a long time. As a result, service recipients as well as various government and private offices present in the upazila are suffering.
Multiple sources claim that Kazi Arfina Wahid joined the Laksam Upazila office of the Department of Information and Communication Technology as an assistant programmer on November 2, 2016, and worked on paper until January 18, 2020, but in reality, she did not work in the office.
According to sources, since joining, he had been irregular in office by forming friendships with the local public representatives of the time (management system).
It was learned from inquiries in the upazila that Faruk Azam joined the said office on additional duty as an assistant programmer on January 19, 2020. Although he was working until February 13, 2021, he was irregular in the office.
Another additional officer, Md. Hasan Imam, joined on March 24, 2021. He was also irregular. However, no one can say how long he was working.
Kazi Arfina Wahid rejoined the government for the second term on July 10, 2012. Since joining, she has not been working regularly like before! In addition, she has not been in the office for a long time since the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, 2012.
When I went to his office on Wednesday, February 19, to find out about his long absence, I found that the office was locked.
When talking to Laksam Upazila Executive Officer Md. Kausar Hamid about this, he said, “It is true that Laksam Upazila Assistant Programmer of the Department of Information and Communication Technology, Kazi Arfina Wahid, does not come to the office regularly for various reasons.” When asked why she is absent, the Upazila Executive Officer could not give any reason.
Meanwhile, her husband Md. Shahid Sikder is working as a programmer at the Dhaka Water Development Board. Some say that Kazi Arfina Wahid wants to wield some power because her husband works at the Bangladesh Water Development Board!
Assistant Programmer Kazi Arfina Wahid was appointed in 2015. At that time, the Awami League government’s Department of Information and Communication Technology appointed 2 programmers and 198 assistant programmers.
According to information received from sources, these officials were working irregularly at that time by building close ties with local public representatives across the country. They were receiving salaries and allowances worth crores of taka from the government treasury without doing any work.
Meanwhile, ICT officers at the field level are appointed to provide IT services to various government and private organizations. They will work on the digitalization of various government services.
The ICT officer will play an important role in collecting and analyzing information at the field level. He will help in creating various surveys and databases and in policy making based on them. But due to the long absence of Laksam Upazila Assistant Programmer of the Department of Information and Communication Technology, Kazi Arfina Wahid, the government and private departments are not getting cooperation in these tasks.
As a result, the online work of various government and private departments has come to a standstill. Service recipients are suffering.
Many tasks of various departments are not being updated. Therefore, the service users feel that the appropriate authorities need to take urgent decisions against such officials.
Officials, employees and service recipients from various departments demanded that a good and skilled officer be appointed to Laksam to work regularly.
When I contacted Assistant Programmer Kazi Arfina Wahid about this, she was asked how many hours she had worked in the last 8 months of her second joining Laksam, but she was unable to give a satisfactory answer. She was largely evasive.
When asked what IT services he provided to Laksam, he could not say. When asked where he keeps his attendance, he said, “I am a first class officer, I do not have to keep attendance.” When asked to see the office inspection register, he said that the register does not exist.
Comilla District Programmer Mohammad Bashir Uddin said, “I have already known that he does not attend office regularly. He has been warned about his irregularity. I will inform the DG sir about this matter.”
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