M. Hafizuddin Khan
Those counties which were liberated from colonial rule through struggle at the cost of millions of lives or those countries where people rose against oppressive and corrupt regimes are expected to be reasonably free from corruption and the people of those countries generally endeavour to establish the lofty ideals for which they fought. Perhaps, the framers of our constitution apprehended something different, otherwise why should our constitution adopt a unique provision as one of the Fundamental Principles of State Policy, at Article 20(2), which states “The State shall endeavour to create conditions in which, as a general principle, persons shall not be able to enjoy unearned incomes…” Unfortunately, Bangladesh, ever since it came into existence, has witnessed corruption in all its ramifications in almost all walks of life and in every sphere of governmental activities resulting in the creation of the conditions which are just opposite to what has been enshrined in the Constitution. Hundreds and thousands of people have enjoyed and are enjoying unearned income without let or hindrance. The State did not create nor is seemingly striving to create such condition which will not allow possessing and enjoying unearned income by any citizen. AFP Ultimately things came to such a pass that according to the Corruption Perception Index, published by Berlin based Transparency International, Bangladesh was rated as the top most corrupt country in the world for consecutively five years beginning from the year 2001. The situation has not much improved in subsequent years. Despite being in such a shameful position the subsequent governments did not show any eagerness to do anything towards combating corruption in the country. Rather, corruption became rampant throughout the whole country and we were being looked down upon by international community as a very corrupt country. Still the government was not unnerved and remained unconcerned although the citizens going abroad had to face many unpleasant situations particularly in any international meetings. Ultimately under very severe pressure from the donor community in general, and the World Bank in particular, the government created very half-heartedly the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) abolishing the totally ineffective and corrupt Bureau of Anti-corruption in 2004 which act appeared to be an eye wash. The lack of earnestness and commitment on the part of the government was clearly visible and as a result that the commission could not take a single step towards achieving its objectives. Even that failed to organise its own office and make it functional. However the commission became active (in many cases over active) after the caretaker government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed took over and the ACC was reconstituted. When the people were extremely dissatisfied with the state of corruption in the country the Awami League, perhaps feeling the pulse of the people, pledged in their election manifesto as one of the priority items that “the Anti-corruption Commission would be strengthened by ensuring its independence; multi directional measures would be taken to fight corruption; all powerful persons would be made to declare their assets yearly; bribery and corruption at all levels of the State and society would be eradicated; unearned income, the culture of loan defaulting, rent seeking, illegal intervention in tender process, black money and muscle flexing would be resisted and eradicated with iron hand; citizens' charter and computerisation would be introduced in all offices to stop the avenues of corruption.” But the party, after being elected with overwhelming majority, has not shown any sign of fulfilling its election pledges. Four years have elapsed but no action to strengthen the ACC is visible. On the contrary, a bill has been lying with the Parliament which, if enacted without amendments demanded by civil society, will make the Commission a 'toothless tiger'-- a comment by the present Chairman of the ACC himself. Bribery, corruption, rent-seeking, illegal intervention in tender process, land, river and wetland grabbing are continuing unabated, rather all these kinds of corrupt and unlawful activities have increased manifold. Black money has been ruling in the economy and the Government has consistently encouraged prevalence of black money through budgetary measures. New areas have been invaded by corruption -- the State owned Banks is a glaring example of this. The party's student Wing has been creating havoc in educational institutions the underlying reason being money making through tender/ recruitment trade. The Corruption Perception Index of the last three years of Awami League led Mohajote government compiled by Berlin based Transparency International did not show any improvement in controlling corruption and the score and rank of the country in the list is almost at the bottom, Bangladesh still remains in the list of most corrupt countries. Of late the government has been showing intolerance to any kind of evaluation made by civil society organisations which indicates prevalence of widespread corruption in various sectors. The reaction of the government against Parliament Watch produced by the Bangladesh Chapter of Transparency International (TIB) is case in point. The report was not only criticised inside and outside of parliament but also demand for closing down the TIB was voiced by some responsible persons in the government. In 2009 the CPI had placed Bangladesh at almost bottom out of 139 countries with a score of 2.4 in the scale of 1 to 10. After four years the position has not improved and its score is 26 in the scale of 0-100 and its position is 144 among 176 countries. In service sectors household surveys conducted by TIB in 2007, 2010 and 2012 repeatedly revealed a dismal picture of corruption and almost no sign of improvement was discernible. Corruption exists and continues to spread and affect all sectors of a country where it is possible to indulge in corruption with impunity. And Bangla-desh is a classic example of such a country. Here the perpetrators of corruption are seldom taken to task. The number one reason is the absence of political commitment. The saga of corruption in the Padma Bridge project is a glaring example of attempts to hide corruption and to protect the perpetrators of corruption until a very strong pressure was brought to bear upon the Government and the ACC. The story is known almost to all and there is no need to repeat here again. When the World Bank openly complained of corruption in selecting consultant the immediate response of the government was to deny any corruption. Instead of sitting with the Bank and jointly trying to find out what had actually happened the government, not only rejected the allegations of the Bank but also leveled counter allegations against the Bank of itself being a corrupt organisation. The Anti-Corruption Commission also initially came up with an enquiry report stating that no corruption had taken place. It is only various pressures exerted on the government by the World Bank coupled with strong public opinion and media's persistent reporting that the government had to agree to remove the suspects from their posts and to hold fresh enquiry which resulted in filing the FIR and taking some officials into custody. Again some of the suspects are still at large and the commission has decided not to implicate a political personality suspected to be involved in the alleged corruption stating that his inclusion in the FIR would create 'political uproar' a ground which indicates that dispensation of justice is not even handed in this county and this violates Article 27 of the constitution which states that every body is equal in the eye of law. The ACC's stand has irritated the World Bank and financing of the Padma Bridge project by the Bank appears to have become all the more uncertain. One of the major measures to be taken to combat corruption pledged by the Awami league was that the assets held by the powerful persons in the government would publicly declare their assts every year. The powerful persons are the prime minister, other ministers, members of parliament and the like along with their dependent family members. An honest declaration of property by these persons every year publicly would have been a singularly important step towards eradicating corruption and would have given signal to all that indulging in corruption with impunity would be difficult. But the pledge has not been fulfilled and there is no likelihood that it will be done in near future. The ACC is still perceived by the people that it is not free from government influence and intervention. The denial of the ACC initially that no corruption had taken place in the Padma bridge project lent support to this perception. Be that as it may, the ACC needs further propping up. Its capacity to handle thousands of corruption cases needs immediate enhancing by providing additional manpower with adequate training and necessary logistics. Some important legal reforms are necessary which, it is understood, have been proposed by the commission but no favourable response from the government is forthcoming. Rather, as mentioned earlier, instead of that the draft law now pending with the parliament contains a clause which, if enacted, will reduce the commission into an absolutely ineffective body. The investigative capacity of the ACC is also not commensurate with the load of its work. Modern methods of forensic investigation are lacking. The government has not taken a single step to enhance the capacity of the commission. A government sincere in its intent to fight corruption would have jumped upon to take up these issues in right earnest and initiated all necessary measures to make the ACC a really functional organisation, a tiger with teeth, and this would have stalled the impunity now being enjoyed by the corrupt persons. To the contrary, the home minister has proposed that the power of withdrawing corruption cases, filed under 'political consideration' should be taken away from the ACC and given to his ministry. It should be remembered here that corruption cases are not filed by individuals; these are filed by the ACC or a government agency. The legal process and procedure as are prevalent now in the country are not at all conducive to speedy trial of court cases filed by the commission. Experience shows that very few corrupt persons are ultimately punished due to various loopholes existing in the legal procedure in our country. Moreover all the courts of the country, higher or lower, are clogged with innumerable number of cases pending with them although all the successive governments of the country have assured that legal reforms would be carried out to ensure speedy disposal of cases. The judiciary, itself, is not free from allegations of corruption. Iqbal Ahmed/ drik news The TIB's household survey of 2010 found Judiciary to be at the top of corrupt functionaries in the service sector of the Government. So where is the remedy? How can we prevent any one indulging in corruption with impunity? A recent development is that the state owned commercial Banks have plunged into corruption of staggering magnitude. Normal banking rules are being violated; moneys are being taken out of their coffers in a manner unheard of in the banking sector. This is because of lax supervision exercised by the respective Boards of the Banks which, in turn, is due to appointment of Directors purely on political consideration without any consideration of their background and suitability. Further, the Bangladesh Bank, the Central Bank of the country, is not the controlling authority of the state owned commercial Banks the reason of which is not intelligible. All over the world the Central Bank is the guardian, the regulator and the controller of the scheduled Banks. Perhaps, only exception has been made in Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Bank itself is not independent of the control of the government. As a result the banking sector in the country is ailing. The above analysis shows eloquently that conditions have not been created, deliberately or otherwise, which will impact upon controlling corruption and doing corruption with impunity will be made difficult. ........................................................... The writer is ex-Adviser caretaker government Trustee, TIB.
