By Md Aynal Haque
 
RAJSHAHI, July 1, 2024 (BSS) - The Annual Performance Agreement (APA) has started strengthening the institutional competence with ensuring transparency and accountability in the fields of public service deliveries here.

It has also been contributing a lot to consolidation of good governance in the service deliveries, benefitting the grassroots people.

As a result of following the APA, fame of the present Rajshahi city has spread at home and abroad as it has got a new look amid massive infrastructural and architectural development works.
 
Mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) AHM Khairuzzaman Liton said widened streets, cleaned atmosphere, road dividers with green trees and plants and crafts, improved civic amenities and eye-catching street lighting at night have made the city attractive enormously.

The city with a 10-lakh population has been familiarized as clean, green, education friendly, healthy and habitable at both home and abroad, he said.
 
Giving an illustration on the city's development schemes along with achievement of those, he said they have constructed 238.75-kilometer carpeting roads, 260.30-kilometer cement-concrete roads, 350.05-kilometer drains, 40.22-kilometer footpaths and 2,099.50-meter boundary walls.
 
In addition to the development of 29 Eidgah, 52 graveyards and one mortuary, development and beautification works of 16 water bodies were completed.

Dr Sharif Uddin, Chief Executive Officer of RCC, said the APA has started ensuring transparency and accountability in their service deliveries besides implementation of the projects.
 
Most of the public offices and other line departments have kept APA apps along with four other good-governance tools in their respective official web portals to reach their services to the public in general and the service recipients as a whole.

Engineer Abdur Rashid said the main vision of their APA was to promote an improved agriculture and environment in the country's northwest region, including its vast Barind tract.

Since signing the deal with the ministry of agriculture, they are working with the mission of expanding irrigated area and farming field, development of irrigation infrastructure, production and marketing of quality seed and tree plantation for environmental development, he said.
 
Engineer Rashid, Executive Director of Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA), said the tool has opened up a new door in implementing any project timely and properly as it has compulsion of submitting project completion reports within the stipulated time.
 
In the last couple of years, 229 irrigation pumps, including 79 low lift pumps driven by solar power, were installed coupled with re-functioning of 69 deep-tube-wells and new power connection to 150 irrigation pumps were made, he added.
 
Around 7,500 hectares of land were brought under controlled irrigation through construction and extension of 903-kilometer underground irrigation canals, the BMDA official said.
 
Apart from this, 8,500 hectares of land have been brought under supplementary irrigation through using surface water as a result of re-excavation of 170.5-kilometer canals and 38 derelict ponds, construction of 385 dug-wells and 23 cross-dams.
 
 
Abdullahel Baki, Deputy Director of Regional Public Administration Training Centre (RPATC), said they have provided necessary training to around 65 APA-related officers and staff so that they can play pioneering role in achieving the goal in their respective working fields in public offices.
 
Prof Iliash Hossain from the Department of Economics at Rajshahi University mentioned that the APA tool is being detected as an epoch-making initiative of the government as it has created spaces of ensuring accountability and transparency in the public service deliveries.
 
APA has been introduced under the government performance management system to increase transparency and accountability in government activities, ensure proper use of resources and improve institutional capacity, he said.
 
He thanked the prime minister for launching such a program to ensure accountability in the democratic state system.