Corruption, corruption everywhere

Among 47 sectors that came under TIB scrutiny, LGRD, education, police, health and family planning, and private sectors were the top five corrupt sectors, while the secondary education department had the highest incidents of bribery.

The LGRD minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, reacting to the TIB report, said that legal action would be taken against the TIB if it does not withdraw its recent report in which his ministry is labeled as the most corrupt. Rejecting the report at a press conference, he said that the TIB report was a bundle of wrong notions which was prepared with an ulterior motive to portray the country as a dysfunctional and failed state.

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The forest and environment minister, Tariqul Islam, was very critical about the survey method and the sources of information that had made up the corruption database that had also labeled his ministry as one of the most corrupt in Bangladesh.

Prof. Muzaffar Ahmed, the chairman of the TIB Trustee Board, also took a strong stance against the adverse reaction of the LGRD minister and said that TIB was ready to face the LGRD ministry legally if and when it files a suit against TIB for publication of its corruption database. At a press conference held on July 12, Prof. Ahmed lamented that both the BNP and AL government have rejected the TIB reports over the past ten years, terming them spiteful to their governments.

TIB's analytical report on corruption revealed that the government suffered a financial loss of Tk 4,130,916,489 in 370 incidents of complain in the year 2004. The report was prepared after analysing 1,754 news items on corruption published in 25 newspapers from January to December 2004. TIB identified the communication sector as the most corrupt accounting for 23.86 percent of the corruption reports in the newspapers. It also identified the tax department, police, forest and environment department and LGRD as other prominent areas of corruption.

Earlier TIB had released its survey report on corruption in Bangladesh on April 20, 2005. The survey report revealed that the people of this country pay an estimated amount of Tk 6.796 crore a year in bribes to the officials and employees of 25 service sector institutions. The amount accounts for roughly 2 percent of our GDP.

TIB conducted "Corruption in Bangladesh: A household survey" to find out the nature of corruption, the broad spectrum, depth, and losses caused by corruption between September 10 and October 24, 2004, in approximately 3,000 households of 55 districts (2,100 households in villages and 900 in towns), and revealed that every person in this country pays Tk 485 in bribes, on an average, to these sectors.

According to the TIB corruption database, over Tk 34,550 crore went down the drain from the public exchequer in the six years since 2000. On the basis of 3,293 newspaper reports scanned during the year 2000, TIB said that the government had faced a loss of Tk 17,192.58 crore. TIB discovered a staggering loss of Tk 11,296 crore in the year 2001 scanning 1514 newspaper reports. The loss of the government was Tk 4,391.67 crore in 2002. It, however, came down below Tk 1,000 crore in 2003 but rose to Tk 413.09 crore in 2004.

Many of our ministers are accused of corruption. The Danish ambassador in Bangladesh brought the charge of corruption against the shipping minister, and the government, and threatened to stop all development assistance from Denmark. Two MPs from the ruling BNP also brought charge of corruption against the communication minister. But nothing concrete has yet been heard about the inquiry made by the parliamentary standing committee on the CNG import scam in which the communication minister was allegedly involved

If any proof is needed about the massive scale of corruption in some of the ministries, it has been provided by the latest report carried in The Daily Star on July 20. The report entitled "Corruption at Communications Ministry," prepared on the basis of the investigation conducted by the Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Department (IMED), said that the communications ministry inflated a Tk 192 crore road construction project to Tk 349 crore by manipulating all components of the scheme with a view to siphoning off huge development fund.

The corruption reports of TIB should be considered as a tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, the government has always been in the denial mode whenever corruption charges were raised against some ministries. It is obvious that the government has been soft on all those involved, and social justice has been the greatest casualty in the process.

TIB, as one of 85 accredited national chapters of Transparency International across the world, works at national level to raise awareness about the damaging effects of corruption. It advocates policy reform and increased levels of accountability and transparency. It began its activities as a trust in 1996 and since then has been working as a catalyst for social movement against corruption and for promoting good governance in Bangladesh.

TIB may proceed on the basis of the experience of TI India chapter in their consistent efforts for the enactment of legislations relating to Lok Pal (Federal Ombudsman), Citizens' Right to Information, electoral reforms, declaration of assets, audit of political party accounts, speedy trial of politicians, forfeiture of ill-gotten wealth and attachment of property, in order to minimise the incidence of corruption.

TI Argentina may also be asked to send information on voter education and accounting of election expenses. It should be the role of the TIB to ensure that the promises made by the political parties in their manifestos, or otherwise, are fulfilled by them.

Bangladesh is to corruption as Brazil is to soccer, so said a British newspaper of the Guardian group, while joking about corruption. Corruption has been so pervasive that Bangladesh has to face such humiliation in the international arena. It is a shame the nation could do away with if the ruling stalwarts, and the privileged, were not corrupt and did not abuse power and position.

ANM Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.