NEW DELHI (TrustLaw) - Transparency International Bangladesh’s executive director, Dr. Iftekhar Zaman, speaks to TrustLaw about the cost of corruption to Bangladesh's economy and the country's poor.
Q: How would you describe the level of corruption in Bangladesh?
A: Bangladesh was ranked at the top of the CPI (Corruption Perceptions Index) consistently for five years from 2001 to 2005. But since 2006, the country’s ranking has slightly improved, especially last year in 2009, from a score of 2.1 to 2.4. (O being the most corrupt and 10 being the least).
Corruption is a major problem in Bangladesh -- not only in terms of the challenge it poses to development, but also in terms of its impact on the promotion of democracy and rule of law as it affects the lives of ordinary Bangladeshis on a daily basis.
Some of the most common forms of corruption are found in the public service sector like in institutions such as hospitals and schools. People in Bangladesh have to pay bribes in order to avail services which they are entitled to -- admissions for schools, for job appointments or to get a transfer in the civil service. There is also a high level of corruption in political and administrative structures. There is hardly any sector in the country which is not affected by corruption.
Q: How much money is Bangladesh losing as a result of corrupt practices?
A: At a macroeconomic level, studies have shown that if corruption can be controlled in Bangladesh, we could have at least three percent higher GDP growth, which means that graft is currently costing up three percent of our GDP.
For the last 20 years, Bangladesh has, by and large, maintained five to six percent GDP growth, which isn’t bad. But if we would control corruption is would be around nine to ten percent which would really help the country’s development.
At a microeconomic level -- where corruption affects ordinary people -- our 2007 national household survey on corruption found, on average, each household is losing four percent of their income as a result of corruption. They are losing money as they have to pay for service delivery such as in sectors like health, education, local government, banking … basically all the public sector institutions.
We also found that people who have higher levels of income, that is over 150,000 taka ($2,158) per year, suffered an average loss of two percent. So this tells us that poorer Bangladeshis are hurt more by graft.
Q: How is graft affecting development efforts?
A: I think the impact of corruption on development activities and in particular poverty reduction is quite significant. The basic rights and entitlements that the poor are supposed to get from the public sector are subject to people being able to make unauthorized payments.
For example, we have a government scheme to award scholarships to people below the poverty line. But we have found that in order to avail that scholarship, there is a 25 percent possibility that you will be forced to pay a bribe just to be listed as someone who is entitled. Furthermore, when those who awarded scholarships, go to collect their quarterly grant, a portion of it is siphoned off.
There are also other government schemes which are made for the ultra-poor but again we see that corruption plagues these poverty reduction schemes, challenging Bangladesh’s ability to lift people out of impoverishment. This is some of the ways graft affects development efforts in Bangladesh.
Q: How do you view corruption in the political system?
In Bangladesh, we have a very confrontational method of politics in Bangladesh. The two major parties have so much bitterness and hatred between one another which is almost unparalleled where top leaders do not even talk to each other when they meet socially.
This tension filters down to all the lower levels where those in power, those who have won the election, take it as almost their mandate to go after the opposition on graft charges. They also use their political influence in the decision making process for big procurements, construction or mining projects.
Some of the key institutions of democracy -- the judiciary, parliament, law enforcement institutions and the anti-corruption commission – are lacking in effectiveness and their ability to enforce is limited.
The judiciary, like any other public sector institution, is supposed be independent but it has been influenced by appointments made on political considerations. So integrity, honest and professionalism of the judiciary is being compromised quite significantly.
As a result, a corruption case or any other case, people are often deprived of justice. This has resulted in a failure to send a strong signal that corruption is a punishable offence.
Also, one of the responsibilities of parliament is to set up committees to check on corruption in the ministries, but these committees have failed to do anything, mainly due to the fact that there are political loyalties to consider.
Q: How effective is the anti-corruption commission?
We have a good anti-corruption act which allows for the anti-corruption commission. This is supposed to be the main body to investigate and bring charges against cases of corruption.
But the anti-corruption commission has been largely ineffective, and new amendments to the act which are being proposed by the government will further weaken the powers of commission and this is something TI Bangladesh is advocating against.
Amendments include that the commission should obtain prior permission from government before charges are brought against an individual. It also means that government will appoint the secretary of the commission, which is a senior position which should be held by an independent and that the commission is accountable to the president of the country.
Q: Is Bangladesh a state party to the UNCAC?
A: Bangladesh is signatory to the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and ratified it in 2007. This is important in terms of its international obligations to create the context in which corruption can be controlled.
This is a political message which is positive, but enforcing the commitment made to UNCAC is a whole different ballgame. After ratifying the convention, the government adopted an implementation strategy, but nothing else has happened. It just remains a piece of paper.
Q: What about laws enabling greater public access to information?
A: After this government came to power, they paid attention to TI Bangladesh’s campaign for the Right to Information Act and it was adopted by parliament in April 2009.
A framework has been create but unfortunately it has not been applied, certainly nowhere near as well as neighbouring India, where their RTI has shown very good results.
The RTI act provides for an Information Commission to deal complaints if your application for information is denied, but commission which was set up is ineffective as it has no resources or no capacity to carry out its work. It has not really delivered.
In general, the lack of capacity in both the demand and supply sides has impacted the effectiveness of the RTI. On the supply side, it is not really sunk in with the people that are supposed to provide information. They still have this culture of secrecy and want to hold onto information. On the demand side, the people who should actually benefit from the RTI are lacking awareness and knowledge about it.
Q: What is Transparency International Bangladesh doing to spread awareness about laws promoting greater transparency?
TI Bangladesh is trying to do awareness campaigns, particularly amongst the youth around the country and we have about 5,000 volunteers who are doing work to raise the profile of RTI.
They also take the campaigns to selected institutions of public service delivery like schools, hospitals and local government bodies and introduce them to various social accountability tools like open budgets, citizens charter, social audit, face the public sessions to help these institutions transform into ideals of integrity.
These initiatives are showing good results and the demand side and institutional capacity is building up. But the challenge is that if the whole thing is not owned at the policy level and there is a lack of commitment at the political level, then even this local level change will be hard to sustain.
We are at a crossroads. There is huge opportunity to be able to control graft, but on the other hand, there is huge predicament against moving ahead.
Q: What more needs to be done to combat graft in Bangladesh?
To create the context in which political commitment can be translated into reality, I would like the government to allow some key institutions to act independently and effectively, for example, the judiciary.
The anti-corruption commission should also be allowed to do its job without interference which is why the government should not make amendments to the anti-corruption act which will weaken the commission further.
We also need drastic reforms in the civil service to make it non-partisan and take away the influence of political actors in appointments, transfers, postings and promotions which is currently very rampant. So they have to introduce reforms to improve its integrity and professional standards.
Also, we would like to see more reforms in the law enforcement agencies like the police. Our 2007 household survey found that 77 percent of people said they were victims of police bribery.
There also has to be better awareness creation amongst the general population about reporting corruption and the RTI in general. We need to especially target the youth as our hopes and investments are with the younger generations.
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