"The cost of getting elected in Bangladesh is said to be among the highest in the world," she said addressing a two-day workshop on infrastructure in the city adding that Tk 200 billion were said to be spent by the parties in the elections.

She urged the Election Commission (EC) to implement rigorously and relentlessly the recent High Court directive to gather information regarding the candidates' income, assets and liabilities.

At the same time, she said, infrastructure finance should be made harder for the corrupt politicians and the parties that support them so that there will be less pressure to use infrastructure as a "cash cow" or "golden goose" for the party or candidate.

"That's good for infrastructure, and for those of us who would like to help finance it," she added.

Wallich's observations elicited sharp reaction from State Minister for Power Iqbal Hassan Mahmood who along with Finance minister M Saifur Rahman was taking part in the workshop.

Mahmood claimed that the newspaper reports make the picture of corruption look grim. Saifur Rahman said corruption has declined in the last one year.

Wallich in her speech said political parties lack financing mechanisms and raise huge sums of funds for national elections through corruption including irregular public procurement and a system of patronage and influence in all sectors and ministries.

"I cannot vouch for the number and it may well be apocryphal. This is about $3.3 billion or five percent of GDP, a large number for a country at Bangladesh's income level," she noted.

"If true, this amounts to $21 per capita paid by each and every Bangladeshi, or to put it another way, it's a 5.3 percent tax on the average income of all Bangladeshis. And yet the ceiling of election spending/contributions is a fraction of this and the parties have no audited accounts," she quipped.

Addressing the inaugural session of the two-day international workshop on Infrastructure Financing in Bangladesh at a city hotel, she also said, "Unfortunately, once political parties become dependent on funding from routine corruption in the sectors, the systemic corruption that pervades the system is self-reinforcing."

"Until and unless the system of election financing is addressed, infrastructure governance reforms will be struggling uphill--improvements will occur, but cannot be fully successful unless the bigger picture of election financing is also reformed," she observed. Bangladesh Bank (BB) and the Board of Investment (BoI) have organised the workshop sponsored by WB.

"The power sector, as President Wolfowitz noted, is a tempting target [for corruption], given the magnitude of its transactions. The government of Bangladesh must remain alert, lest this be allowed to happen," she pointed out.

"So what about solutions?" she asks and replies herself, "The High Court directive delivered in May last, demanding the candidates must disclose their income, assets and liabilities, the assets and liabilities of family members, their bank loans and repayments, and sources of income, and any criminal record."

She said, "Future IDA [International Development Assistance of the WB] commitments will of course depend on country performance, the pace of economic reforms and project implementation."

Bangladesh's current problem of infrastructure does not lie in the infrastructure sectors, rather in Bangladesh's system of political governance, said the country director of .

Wallich observed the recent Investment Climate Assessment for Bangladesh identified poor quality and poorly managed infrastructure as the major deficiency in the investment climate, together with security and law and order.

Moreover, Bangladesh is denying itself access to readily available power projects by failing to address the essential role of procurement processes, she continued.

"Since 1999, some 15 power plants have been publicly tendered but only three were awarded. The procurement process followed were questionable and non-transparent and not in the interest of good outcomes for Bangladesh," she said.

Finance and Planning Minister M Saifur Rahman while giving his views to the press after the workshop differed with Wallich on the question of election funding. He said, "Huge election funding is not uniquely a matter of Bangladesh. Political parties in America or Japan or Germany raise billions of dollars during national elections. Can these amounts be raised from the candidates alone?"

"This is nothing new. The World Bank president talked about corruption before. Corruption exists in every country. But in our case, they [WB] say, you are a poor country; if you misappropriate all development funds through corruption, then how will the poor get money?" Saifur told the press.

Lack of corporate governance is a major problem for the development of infrastructure in Bangladesh, Saifur admitted.

"I do not agree that we have corruption from top to bottom," Saifur said adding, "We believe corruption will come down further with the full functioning of the new institutions like Anti Corruption Commission that the current government has set up."

Saying that corruption in the country stems mainly from poverty, Iqbal Hasan Mahmood, the state minister for power, energy and mineral resources, said, "It's true we are poor, we are corrupt, but what about the developed countries? They are intellectually corrupt."

"A discussion should be held involving the donor agencies and the other countries to find out how much corrupt we are and how much the developed countries including America," he said.

Speaking at the workshop, Mahmudur Rahman, adviser to energy ministry, said unless the country achieves double digit industrial growth, it will be very hard to reach the target of seven percent GDP growth by 2007 and the millennium development goals.

WB Vice-president (Financial Sector Network) Cesare Calari presented the keynote paper at the workshop arranged to promote long-term finance for the development of infrastructure, including ports, power and telecoms.

Policymakers, regulators, investors, operators, bankers, and international experts are participating in the workshop, the first of its kind in Bangladesh, to discuss policy and operational issues as well as international best practices of infrastructure.