"It is usual that any sort of crime will turn institutional and spread its wings in the absence of trial and punishment. This has been happening here."

— TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman

Almost 71 percent homes had to endure corruption while getting services last year, which is 4.3 percent more than that of four years ago, found a Transparency International Bangladesh survey.

Unveiling the "Corruption in Service Sectors: National Household Survey 2021" on 15,454 homes nationwide, the TIB yesterday said the most graft-ridden service sectors were the police and its different wings, Department of Immigration and Passports, and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.

The households had to pay an estimated Tk 10,830 crore in bribes last year, which is 0.4 percent of the country's GDP and 5.9 percent of the revised budget of 2020-2021 fiscal year, it said.

On average, each home had to pay Tk 6,636 in bribes to get services last year, said the report.

The TIB has been publishing this report since 1997 with a usual interval. The latest one, the ninth edition, was delayed by the pandemic.

The report covered at least 22 service sectors "riddled with petty corruption" but excluded areas known for large-scale corruption such as procurement, supply chain, and mega projects, the TIB said.

"… the overall service sector graft situation is alarming and [corruption] has taken an institutional form," said TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman at the press conference organised for the report unveiling at its office.

He said corruption situation in some sectors worsened last year while some others, including education, power, and agriculture, improved, albeit still at high level.

Iftekharuzzaman said bribery, extortion , embezzlement, deception, negligence of duty, nepotism and attempts to spread influence were marked as corruption under the study.

Unfortunately, corruption continued to spread in sectors that are supposed to control it and ensure enforcement of law, he said.

According to the report, 74.4 percent homes seeking services from law enforcement agencies endured corruption last year compared to 72.5 percent in the 2017 report.

At least 70.5 percent households dealt with graft in getting passport-related services. It was 67.3 percent in 2017.

In the case of BRTA-related services, last year's number was 68.3 percent and 2017's percentage was 65.4 percent.

The report said the average monthly income of each household surveyed was Tk 25,187 and the average expenditure was Tk 22,055.

At least 55.4 percent homes faced difficulty in getting services due to negligence of duty. This is worse as the percentage in 2017 was 39.9 percent.

The report said 40.1 percent homes had to pay bribes or make irregular transactions of money. This is an improvement as the report of 2017 put the number at 49.8 percent.

Iftekharuzzaman said the decline in homes enduring bribery could be considered an "achievement" but such achievement has been overshadowed by the rise in overall corruption. The misuse of power continued in various other forms, he said.

More than 72 percent of the respondents said they had to bribe or else they would not get the services, Iftekharuzzaman said.

Digitalisation of some services in a few sectors could be a reason for the decline in bribery, he said, adding that it was a highly effective method of reducing corruption.

It is possible to control corruption effectively by ensuring digitalisation of services along with ensuring accountability and punishment of the culprits, he said.

He said the government's top level had committed to "zero tolerance" for corruption but corruption was rampant among public servants responsible for making the government pledge a reality.

The government and the Anti-Corruption Commission have mechanism to prevent corruption but there is a lack in effective enforcement, he said.

"It is usual that any sort of crime will turn institutional and spread its wings in the absence of trial and punishment. This has been happening here," he added.

Iftekharuzzaman said about 19 percent of the respondents filed complaints with the authorities concerned and of them only 0.2 percent lodged complaints with the ACC. The ACC should find out why so many people are not interested in seeking their support, he added.

Contacted, Jahangir Alam, additional secretary (police and NTMC wing) of the home ministry's Public Security Division, yesterday said they would be able to make comments on the report after going through it.

"… I will check tomorrow [today], discuss it with the secretary, and then would be able to give an opinion," he told this paper.

"Bangladesh is a democratic country. There is freedom of expression and anybody can say anything," he added.

In yet another harrowing tale of mismanagement and lack of accountability within our banking sector, the fate of crores of public money – allocated for climate change and its adverse effects on the environment and people's livelihoods – hangs in the balance, with no one seemingly concerned about it. Back in 2015, the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust (BCCT) entrusted Tk 538 crore to the then Farmers Bank Ltd with the expectation that this substantial deposit, coupled with accrued interest, would be returned within a year. Fast forward to 2023, and the trust has received a mere Tk 74 crore – only a fraction of the Tk 827 crore due. The situation worsened when Farmers Bank, now Padma Bank, successfully secured an additional eight-year extension from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to repay the money, leaving the BCCT in a perpetual state of waiting. Worse still, the bank reportedly now wishes to pay back the funds at a reduced interest rate of six percent.

Read more

The ‘mega serial’ of bank scams

The misadventures of Farmers Bank are old news by now. The bank, established in 2013, collapsed in less than three years because of widespread financial irregularities, with more than Tk 3,500 crore being syphoned out of the bank, according to the Bangladesh Bank. It was later bailed out by the four state-owned banks and given a name-lift, but it continues to be riddled by poor management and bad debts. According to the central bank, as of March 2023, Padma Bank had a total outstanding loan of Tk 5,782 crore, of which Tk 3,427 crore were defaulted loans, representing approximately 60 percent of their total debt. It also had a capital deficit of Tk 400 crore.

The saga also raises deep concerns about how public money, entrusted with various trusts, are being used and invested, in the name of the public, in the absence of any accountability mechanism.

In 2015 – the same year that the BCCT made the investment – Bangladesh Bank identified gross violations of banking rules in disbursing loans at the bank, including the involvement of its former directors in the scam. The question that has not been answered in so long is: why did the BCCT deposit its money with such an unstable financial institution in the first place?

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Don’t allow criminals to milk the banking sector

As highlighted by Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh, it is telling that, despite the issue being discussed in parliament back in 2018, no attempt has been made to hold those who made this controversial investment decision to account. The saga also raises deep concerns about how public money, entrusted with various trusts, are being used and invested, in the name of the public, in the absence of any accountability mechanism. We urge the government and the relevant ministry to launch a full-scale investigation into the issue. Moving forward, they must stop being so lenient towards a scam-ridden bank and hold it to account for its egregious failure to pay back the dues.

The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has urged the government to publish the draft Bank Companies (Amendment) Act for the interest of the people.

"This is not a secret document, so it should be published," said the anti-graft organisation in a press release yesterday.

The cabinet approved the draft of the Act on March 28 in order to reform the banking sector.

When the draft got the nod from the cabinet nearly one month ago, it was expected that the government would publish it in order to receive feedbacks and recommendations from the stakeholders as a usual practice of the current government, the TIB said.

"But the document has not been published yet."

Quoting media reports, the press release said the TIB was astonished when it came to know that the banking division of the finance ministry declined to share the draft Act with a mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently, citing it as a classified document.

As per the reform actions agreed with the IMF for the $4.7 billion loan programme, the government is supposed to submit the draft to parliament by June.

In any logic, the draft Act, which is directly linked with the public interests, cannot be a classified document.

But there might be a question of whether the amendment has given priority to the interest of vested groups rather than protecting the interest of the public.

Confusion is being created over a document that is not classified and this is because the policies of the banking sector are dictated by loan defaulters and people involved with loan scams and capital flight, the TIB alleged.

So, the draft should be made public as soon as possible, it said.

The TIB said the draft should be finalised in a transparent manner by incorporating the feedbacks and recommendations of experts and stakeholders.

"Otherwise, the government's will to restore good governance in the banking sector will remain questionable."

Bangladesh has dropped two notches in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2023.

According to the CPI, Bangladesh secured 10th position from the bottom -- down from the previous index's 12th.

This is Bangladesh's worst performance in the index since 2008, when the country also ranked 10th from last.  

The country ranked 149th out of 180 countries in the CPI 2023, a list compiled by anti-graft watchdog Transparency International.Bangladesh shared 149th spot with Central African Republic, Iran, Lebanon and Zimbabwe, all with 24 points out of 100. 

Bangladesh scored 25 out of 100 in the last index, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) said while disclosing the list at a press conference today.

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Bangladesh’s disappointing position in TI corruption index

Nine other groups of countries, totalling 27, make up the last nine spots. Somalia was ranked as the most corrupt with just 11 points.  

Denmark was ranked least corrupt for the second eyar in a row with 90 points, followed by Finland, New Zealand, Norway and Singapore in the top five. 

TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman revealed the information.

"Our performance is frustrating and embarrassing," he said.

As expected, the Awami League government—three ministers, to be specific—reacted sharply after the publication of a research report titled "The 12th Parliament Election Process Tracking," which included a survey on 50 constituencies in the January 7 election by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB). The research found the election to be one-sided—one that was staged to appear competitive. "It is an ominous sign regarding the future of democracy and democratic elections in Bangladesh," said TIB's executive director Iftekharuzzaman. The research, which was conducted in 50 out of 300 constituencies in eight divisions between June 2023 and January 2024, found multiple irregularities in all the constituencies surveyed on election day.

No sooner had the report hit the newsstands than AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader accused TIB of speaking in the language of BNP, and even went one step further by terming it to be BNP's agent—reminiscent of Mannan Bhuiyan, former secretary general of BNP, bringing up a similar accusation in 2006. Regarding the TIB report, Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud said, "It seems that there is a similarity in terms of language between what BNP says and what TIB is saying." Meanwhile, the State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat said, "TIB has done the research in 10 days of the national election and reached many conclusions. I don't know how it is possible to conduct the research within a short period." Of course, the report was not done "in 10 days" but over seven months, as mentioned above.

Anybody with rudimentary knowledge of Bangladesh's politics, at least of the last 33 years—since the fall of autocrat Ershad—knows that AL and BNP differ on practically everything under the Sun. I could throw a riddle at my readers and ask: "Can you name one thing or issue or an institution in the hatred of which both our leading parties are united?" The answer is, of course, TIB.

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From one party to one person: What was de facto is now de jure

TIB, which is the Bangladesh chapter of Transparency International (TI), was founded as a trust in 1996 and registered as an NGO in 1998. TI launched its first global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) report in 2001, which coincided with the last year of Awami League's first term in office (during 1996-2001). The report identified Bangladesh as being at the top of the list of countries perceived as highly corrupt.

All hell broke loose immediately, to say the least.

Given its proclivity to smell a conspiracy in everything that does not sing its praise, AL reacted with unprecedented rage, saying that the index was nothing but a "conspiracy" to discredit the party before the election which was to be held some months later. The publicity apparatus of AL, which was considerable since it was the ruling party at that time as well, began a concerted tirade against this newly formed body. The disclaimers that the report was not of TIB—which is based in Bangladesh—but of TI—which is based in Berlin—and that the former had nothing to do with it fell on deaf ears.

BNP, on the contrary, could not hold back its joy and considered the 2001 CPI the most authentic vindication of all its anti-AL propaganda. Its praise for TIB knew no bounds.

However, when BNP came to power in 2002, its tone, as expected, reversed. It was now BNP's turn to be angry and attack TIB. While AL's praise continued unabated, BNP carried out a tirade against TIB for the four successive years that Bangladesh occupied the same slot, saying TIB was a pro-AL body and that its secret agenda was to discredit Khaleda Zia's government and bring AL back to power. Separately, TIB—through its own research—exposed BNP's failure to curb corruption and showed how this malaise had spread throughout the country. In 2006, BNP's anger reached such a pitch that it threatened to close down TIB's branches in 64 districts by lodging cases in all districts. One of TIB's reports exposed corruption in local government in particular, whose minister, Mannan Bhuiyan, made it his personal crusade to castigate TIB and used the whole government machinery to harass, discredit, and intimidate the organisation. BNP's local-level leaders and activists even ransacked at least two TIB offices in Lalmonirhat and Faridpur, and physically assaulted the young volunteers of TIB.

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Election Commission's burden of a looming non-inclusive election

Throughout this period when BNP was in power, AL's praise for TIB fell like the monsoon rains and the party termed it to be as brave, courageous, and authentic an organisation as could be.

However, the tables turned once more with AL returning to power in 2008. In reaction to a TIB report exposing the highest rate of corruption in legal services through the National Household Survey, three defamation cases were lodged against TIB by pro-AL lawyers in different places (Cumilla, Khagrachari, and Chattogram), each containing exactly the same narrative of allegations.

Under both regimes, tirade against TIB featured even in parliamentary deliberations.

In a furious reaction against a TIB report titled "Parliament Watch," which had exposed the weaknesses of the functioning of the Jatiya Sangsad, the veteran politician and late chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee, Suranjit Sengupta, threatened the cancellation of TIB's registration. Based on his draft, the parliament followed up by introducing a provision in the Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Act 2016 that presently regulates the work of NGOs. By this provision, criticism of the constitution and of all constitutional bodies was criminalised, creating an atmosphere of intimidation not only against TIB, but against NGOs in general and those working in governance and rights.

Ministers and senior officials under both regimes have consistently raised motivated, ridiculous, and unsubstantiated doubts about the funding source of TIB. This is despite the government being the first to know what the source of funds is, thanks to monitoring by the NGO Affairs Bureau. The BNP government had come up with a theory that TIB received funds from corruption-ridden Enron and WorldCom, while the AL government alleged TIB to have received funds from BHP, an Australian mining outfit. However, none of these organisations has ever had any interaction with TIB.

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Our anti-corruption capacity is hostage to power

Under both regimes, TIB has been subjected to targeted harassment by relevant government entities like NGO Affairs Bureau, National Board of Revenue, and also surveillance by agencies.

The question is: after all these years and perpetual bashing of TIB, did the governments of the respective days benefit from their demonising of TIB? Wouldn't they have benefitted more if they'd really studied the TIB mandate, which was to strengthen the capacity of the state and its relevant institutions to fight corruption and improve governance? TIB conducts 10-12 research studies annually on public institutions to examine the extent of corruption in each and suggest relevant reforms. Its flagship National Household Survey, conducted every two years, reveals the extent of bribery in important sectors like health, education, local government, land, law enforcement, income tax, passport service, etc. This particular study contains a treasure of facts which, when delved into deeply, can provide endless ideas to the government on how to ameliorate public suffering. But instead, the reactions of our governments have been knee-jerk, devoid of facts, and threatening, always with an intention of shooting the messenger.

As the AL government begins its fourth consecutive term, we hope that it will have learned from its past mistake of automatically negating all critical reports and opinions. This time around, it will hopefully approach the critical voices, including that of the independent media, in a more mature and fact-based manner rather than treating critics as enemies.

Mahfuz Anam is editor and publisher of The Daily Star.

Views expressed in this article are the author's own.

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