Fulfill pledge, bring to book tax dodging staff
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) yesterday urged donor agencies to fulfill their pledge to establish transparency and accountability by bringing to book staff who dodged tax and resorted to irregularities.
TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman thanked the National Board of Revenue for indentifying in a preliminary probe high foreign officials of the agencies who sold their duty-free cars to Bangladeshis without paying due taxes, causing the state to lose a huge amount of revenue.
Following the revelation, United Nations Bangladesh office issued a memo asking foreign staff to strictly follow the country's laws over sale of duty-free vehicles and other durables.
Addressing a human chain on the capital's Central Shaheed Minar premises marking International Anti-Corruption Day-2016 today, Iftekharuzzaman said a recent TIB survey found that 69 percent of the country's people fell victim to corruption while trying to avail government services.
Bangladesh's progress in the global corruption index was not adequate while the government, despite having a much stronger infrastructure resistant to corruption for the formulation of new laws and policies, has to focus on the implementation part, he said.
Institutions responsible for execution of laws will have to duly carry out their responsibilities, said Iftekharuzzaman. He said none wanted laws curbing freedom of expression and those ultimately helped and protected the corrupt.
Chief guest Dhaka University Vice Chancellor AAMS Arefin Siddique said corruption grows from minds and people would have to take oath to resist corruption at their respective levels.
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