The local government ministry will look into the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority board decision increasing the monthly salary of its managing director Taqsem A Khan by Tk 1.75 lakh or 38 per cent to Tk 6.25 lakh, said local government and rural development minister Md Tajul Islam on Monday.

Tajul told New Age that he had asked the Dhaka WASA board chairman to submit to him the details of MD’s salary for taking a decision.

‘I will take a decision after getting the resolution of the board meeting and evaluating the salary breakdown,’ Tajul said.

Taqsem has been drawing his new salary of Tk 6.25 lakh from March 1 after the WASA board in a meeting approved the increase in his salary on February 28, five months after his contract had been renewed for the fourth time on October 1, 2020 with effect from November 1. 

He used to get Tk 4.50 lakh per month before the latest review of his salary, WASA officials, said adding that Taqsem’s salary was Tk 1.20 lakh when he for the first time got appointment as the managing director in October 2009.

His salary has increased by 421 per cent in the past 12 years, they said.

According to the new monthly salary package, Taqsem is getting Tk 2.86 lakh as basic, Tk 35,000 house rent, Tk 35,700 treatment allowance, Tk 35,000 entertainment allowance, Tk 1.80 lakh special allowance, Tk 47,667 festival allowance and Tk 4,767 Bangla New Year festival allowance, said the officials.

‘A three-member sub-committee, led by Finance Division additional secretary Selina Akhtar, also a DWASA board member, placed the proposal of the new salary package before the board, arguing that Taqsem had not got increment after 2016 although he had led the agency to achieve excellence through his dynamic and innovative leadership,’ DWASA board chairman Golam Mustafa said.   

Selna Akhter, who is now enjoying her post-retirement leave, said that the sub-committee calculated the salary breakdown considering the salaries of managing directors of other agencies.

According to documents, managing directors of Janata Bank, Sonali Bank and Rupali Bank get Tk 4 lakh each as monthly salary, the Dhaka Power Distribution Company Tk 2.5 lakh, the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Tk 3.5 lakh and the Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited Tk 2.50 lakh while the Public Works Department chief engineer gets Tk 2 lakh as monthly salary.

Increasing monthly salary by Tk 1.75 lakh by showing ‘absurd allocations’ like monthly festival allowance and monthly Bangla New Year festival by the DWASA board has drawn widespread criticisms from consumers, corruption watchdogs and present and former WASA board members and officials.

They said that Dhaka dwellers were not getting drinkable water although the agency had increased the water tariff by 300 per cent in the past 12 years since 2009, when Taqsem got the appointment.

In 2009, the water tariff was Tk 6.04 a unit which rose to Tk 15.18 a unit in 2021.

Besides, 85 per cent of the capital has still remained out of the sewerage coverage, they said, adding that none of the mega projects that WASA had initiated during the period could be completed in scheduled time.

Among the projects which have been completed belatedly with an increase in installation costs, WASA officials said, the Tk 3,670.49 crore Padma Treatment Plant and Tk 537 crore Savar well-field projects produce only one-sixth of their total capacity of producing 60 crore litres of water a day.

 ‘We as consumers want quality service in an affordable rate which but WASA has failed to provide. So, the ministry concerned must investigate the abnormal salary rise of the WASA MD,’ said Consumers Association of Bangladesh chairman Ghulam Rahman.

Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman demanded that the government should investigate whether the salary increment, including the rates, had been granted in a due process, by virtue of an order of the proper authority and at rates determined by the relevant rules of the organisation.

Former WASA board member Waliullah Sikder said that the board in 2020 rejected his proposal for investigating corruption allegations against Taqsem by a forming a committee comprising members from the board, BUET, the LGRD ministry and legal experts.

The Anti-Corruption Commission is also investigating alleged corruptions in WASA, said officials, adding that a writ petition was filed with the High Court challenging the first appointment of Taqsem, arguing that he had got grace marks in the recruitment examination to secure the first position by the board led by the then chairman Golam Mustafa.

Golam Mustafa refused to discuss the matter.

‘The MD should be evaluated by his present performance,’ he said.

Taqsem could not be contacted for comments as he is now in the US.