Rise of corruption in Bangladesh

Apurba Saha

ID: 23101329

 

Corruption…Corruption…CORRUPTION!!

Almost in every aspect of our life, we hear about corruption. Why?

First I'll share about my very recent experience that I encountered on 25th July in the Agargaon Passport Office. So, at first I was standing in line with my father for more than 2 hours to renew my passport. It was around 2:45 pm. When it was our time to submit the papers, the guards shooed us away! One of them said it was closing time even though it was written over the board that office closes at 3:30pm. Then we noticed that the other guard allowed a group of people to go in front of us. When we went to complain about the matter to the higher officials, they didn’t even bother to hear us out. That’s when I realized that it’s not the trees, but the roots that are corrupted.

How does corruption affect society?

 

Corruption is a form of criminal offense. For common people, it stands as a barrier to a normal lifestyle. Local citizens cannot enjoy their rights because of some greedy people. For example, in markets, some dishonest businessmen often hide goods in order to sell the same goods for a much higher price, making it difficult for the lower class people to shop freely. As a result, the lower and the middle class people suffer the most despite being the major part of a society. It is a national threat that undermines democracy, hollows out the rule of law and prevents the efficient and fair delivery of the government services, which are the lawful rights of the citizens of a country. Not only the society but also the country itself gets into a terrible situation where most of the sufferers are the poor people. In the name of development, they use unethical measures to traffic illegal money to foreign countries leaving their own country in financial debts.

Who is to blame for corruption in Bangladesh?

 

In Bangladesh, the corrupt politicians are to blame at first for this crisis. They usurp illegal money from the poor people and different government projects under the name of development. Secondly, the dishonest police officers who often harass the commoners for trivial issues in order to earn more. Thirdly, the unethical government officials who charge the local people more for doing their work in a short time. Fourthly…Well, this list goes on and on because corruption has become indulged so much in our country that at this point, people are scared to even stand against it. Who do we go to?

 

How does corruption impact government institutions in Bangladesh?

 

In Bangladesh, the government sectors are mostly run by corrupt officers. As a result, the impacts of corruption are huge. It causes financial loss, damages employee morale and their reputation, focus and resources get diverted away from delivering core business and service to the citizens, increased scrutiny, oversight and regulation, etc.

 

What are the anti-corruption efforts in Bangladesh?

 

So far, anti-corruption efforts have led to a series of high profile campaigns involving new legislation, introduction of new institutions, and the arrest of many (certain) high profile politicians. Moreover, there are ongoing investigations about different officials which are unlikely to be effective but still gives us a ray of hope. After all, something is better than nothing. Aside that, The Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Act of 1974(“BAC 1974”) was subsequently enacted to combat and control bribery and other forms of corruption which was later replaced by Anti-Corruption Commission Act of 2004(ACCA 2004)

How is corruption in Bangladesh viewed internationally?

 

Internationally, according to a recent analysis by Khan (2017), Bangladesh has some of the worst governance and anti-corruption scores in the world since 1980. Still, it has made moderate to good progress on different indicators of economic and social development. Again, in Transparency International’s 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, which scored the public sector of 180 countries on a scale from 0-100 (highly corrupt to very clean), Bangladesh scored 25, which is not a very good result to be honest.

Source: https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2022?gclid=CjwKCAjw29ymBhAKEiwAHJbJ8piYbyNGptsCMm_JIVVBxhrap2ki7Pj2YbRQ2XcYUxxLqoGX7Tqb8BoCo5UQAvD_BwE

How can we build a corruption-free future in Bangladesh?

 

To build a corruption free future in Bangladesh, we must:

·        Work with motivated leaders

·       Address key areas like health and education service delivery, or the development of natural resources

·       Establish accountability through oversight systems and transparent decision-making

·       Strengthen the accountability function of civil society and an independent media

·       Support the parliament roles and supreme audit institutions to monitor government performance

·       Appoint a public service based on merit and competitive recruitment

·       Simplify tax systems, reduce red tape and eliminate unnecessary regulation

·        Lastly, we must raise awareness as the responsible generation because we are the future of our country.

If the above ways are followed, corruption in Bangladesh can be tackled. Finally, society would be a better place to live in for all sorts of people irrespective of their class, caste or ethnicity.

Autobiography

 

The writer of the blog ”Rise of corruption in Bangladesh” is Apurbo Saha, a student of BRAC University. He completed his schooling from St. Gregory’s High School & College. The author passed his HSC from BAF Shaheen College and is currently studying as an undergraduate in the CSE department of BRACU.

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