The staff of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission has not received salaries and other payments after February this year, apparently owing to some disagreement between the science and technology ministry and the commission over the method of fund disbursement.
Pensions have not been paid either to the retired officials of the agency during this time.
A high official of the commission, seeking anonymity, said that they last received salaries in February and had not received any salary or Eid bonus since then.
The official said that the Ministry of Science and Technology used to send the allocated budget to the commission鈥檚 account, through which salaries and pensions were disbursed.
The official said that the ministry now wanted to disburse the payments through the Integrated Budget and Accounting System (iBAS++) software, which the commission had not agreed to, leading the ministry to halt the release of funds.
The official also said that the ministry last released the allocated budget in December 2024, and employees were paid salaries of up to the month of February using the surplus funds.
The commission currently has 2,460 employees, including 600 scientists.
Besides, over 1,300 retirees are under its current payroll.
Commission chairman Md Quamrul Huda and science and technology ministry senior secretary Md Mokabbir Hossain could not be reached for comments.聽
The Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission was established by the Presidential Order 15 of 1973 as a multidisciplinary research and development organisation.
