PM Rejects City Corporation Administrator’s Foreign Trip Request

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has rejected a foreign travel proposal submitted by the Administrator of the Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC), Md. Mahfuzur Rahman, who sought to visit France to gain experience in energy-efficient street lighting technologies. While the head of government turned down the administrator's application, she approved the travel proposal for the executive engineer of the corporation's electrical department, A.B.M. Asaduzzaman Sweet.

The Prime Minister finalized the decision today, Monday, while reviewing a summary brief forwarded by the Local Government Division, according to sources within the Prime Minister's Office.

Prioritizing Technical Expertise Over Administrative Visits

The travel request was initially initiated following an official invitation from Signify Bangladesh Limited, which proposed a study tour for the two officials to inspect France's Outdoor Lighting Application Center. In her executive remarks on the case file, the Prime Minister explicitly clarified the state's stance on foreign training delegations:

"If an engineer acquires knowledge on this matter, it will be directly useful to the Rajshahi City Corporation. Since the Administrator of the Rajshahi City Corporation is not an engineer, his participation carries no significance. Only the proposed Executive Engineer (Electrical) may undertake this visit if necessary." — Prime Minister Tarique Rahman

To foster long-term self-reliance, the Prime Minister additionally advised that domestic state bodies must actively seek technical and academic cooperation from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and other national engineering universities for future innovative projects.

Strict Stance on State Resource Management

Reliable sources close to the administration indicated that the decision reflects a broader policy shift where the Prime Minister prioritizes the direct involvement of certified, actual experts in state-funded developmental activities. The head of government remains strongly opposed to wasting public funds on foreign tours for individuals who lack direct institutional or professional ties to the technical subjects under review.

This is not an isolated intervention by the prime minister's office regarding local government travel requests. Previously, the Prime Minister took a similar hardline stance by outright rejecting a high-profile proposal that would have sent the Mayor of the Chittagong City Corporation alongside other senior municipal officials to the United States under the pretext of directly observing mosquito control systems.