So marked has been the fall-out of the alleged monopoly business by the motor company that it could sell the CNG auto-rickshaw at Tk 3.67 lakh apiece while its actual market price was 1.67 lakh, as the relevant investigative report put it. The chairman of the standing committee Syed Monjur Hossain maintained that the issuance of permit to the motor company was in breach of the original plan to entrust the Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC), a state sector organisation, with the job of importing the CNG vehicles. To this, the minister said the BRTC was not credit-worthy in the eye of any scheduled bank because it was a loan-defaulter so that the job went to the motor company. Even assuming that the BRTC's approach to banks for any loan evoked a negative response, the minister has to answer the pertinent question as to why more than one company was not allowed to import so as to factor a competitive element into pricing.

The fact that the minister was abroad for treatment when the import plan was in the making does not quite absolve his responsibility because he heads the communications ministry. The standing committee has formed a sub-committee to probe the allegations and submit a report of its findings in thirty days. Let it bring out the facts to service the cause of accountability in an important ministry.

One wishes the standing committee had taken up the matter earlier on to set things right. After all, out of the franchise of 10,000 CNG auto-rickshaws, 8,000 have already been sold since January 2002. On the whole, however, the standing committee's revelation marks a laudable step towards establishing transparency in the government which should be widely built upon for greater public good.