Bribery rampant in land offices

Massive corruption prevails in the land offices and people have to pay bribes starting from Tk 100 to Tk 20 lakh in every step to get land related services, according a report of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) reveals.

Though the government in the last five years has taken some positive initiatives but there is a lot more work to be done to check graft and ensure hassle-free services in the offices, said the report titled "Land Management and Services: Challenge of Good Governance and Way Forward."

Corruption and lack of good governance in the sector have a long term social impact as still 60 percent of all pending civil cases -- meaning around 18 lakh -- are related to land, added the report presented in a press conference yesterday.

The TIB also found sometimes influential political leaders make underhand dealings with land officials to record khas land, vested and abandoned properties or properties of courts of wards in their name.  

"There is nothing new to say about the corruption in land sector. Graft in land related services has taken an institutional shape," said Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of TIB. 

Though the government has initiated digital land management, still a lot more is needed to be done, he said.

The TIB boss explained: people have to follow eight steps for land registration and another 10 steps for mutation of a land. "But we have checked that it is possible to make the process easy. Once the process becomes easy, corruption will also come down."

The watchdog has shared the report with the top officials of the ministry of land and found a positive attitude of the ministry officials regarding fighting graft. "Hopefully the ministry would take some action," Iftekharuzzaman said.

Presenting the TIB findings, Wahid Alam, senior programme manager (policy and research) TIB said people have to pay bribe to get any service from land offices. The amount of bribe depends on the type of services and quantity and locations of the land.

"A surveyor even threatens a land owner that if he is not paid bribe, he would willingly make a mistake in the land record," said Wahid.

In the presentation, Wahid Alam presented a chart of the bribe people have to pay to get different types of services:  Tk 100 to Tk 10,000 for land development taxes, Tk 5,000 to Tk 2 lakhs for mutation, Tk 1,000 to Tk 50,000 for land registration and Tk 10,000 to Tk 20 lakh for lease of a haat or bazaar. 

Weaknesses of existing law, manual record management and lack of accountability in land administration, proper budgetary allocation, skilled manpower, effective trainings, office logistics and proper equipment are the key reasons behind graft in this sector, he said.

In the presentation, TIB recommended, the government should form a single institution to provide all the land related services. There should be a long-term plan regarding digitalisation of the land management and coordinated system of digitalised land management and land registration.

The TIB report said the government in recent years has seriously been considering digitalisation of land sector. For the work, huge amount money would be required in coming years. According to senior officials of land ministry, around Tk 1,000 billion would be required for the next 10 years for digitalisation of entire land administration and management.