Asia Times: Corruption causing Bangladeshi poverty


	April 18, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Corruption causing Bangladeshi poverty
By Tabibul Islam

DHAKA - When a college lecturer went to a local police station to report his 13-year-old maid servant missing he was told by police officials that he was himself not above suspicion.

''You know, smuggling of young girls outside the country is a lucrative business. Many well-to-do people who look innocent are involved in this trade,'' the police official hinted. The lecturer, who did not want to be named, said he was initially struck dumb by the insinuation but realized very quickly what the officer was after - gratification.

''Police in Bangladesh know every dirty trick to extort money from both criminals and innocent people alike,'' said a retired public servant.

With a reputation for corruption people have generally lost confidence in the police force and prefer to keep it at a safe distance even when in real trouble.

A recent survey by the Berlin-based, Transparency International (TI) team reveals the extent of corruption not only among police officers but also officialdom in other sectors such as health, education and even the judiciary. Of 2,500 respondents interviewed by the TI team in both urban and rural areas 68 percent said the police demanded bribes for routine procedures like recording complaints or filing first information reports. Upto 90 percent of the respondents said it was impossible to get police help without money or influence.

Little wonder then that a survey conducted by a Bengali language daily showed more than a hundred police officials in Dhaka city owning properties worth more than $60 million.

The large imposing mansions in the posh areas of Dhaka are invariably owned by political leaders, police officers and members of the civil and military bueaucracy. According to a World Bank report the income of police officials is assuming huge proportions as a result of widespread extortion and bribery.

Things have come to such a pass that nothing moves in the public sector without bribery - or speed money as the bank calls it - changing hands.

So pervasive has corruption become that its size and scope is the subject or ordinary conversation within professional groups, the diplomatic community and business.

Despite high-sounding pledges by government leaders, starting with the prime minister, to wipe out corruption it is eating into the vitals of the nation unchecked and studies here and abroad list Bangladesh as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

Reports by the bank, TI, and the UNDP speak of billions of dollars changing hands every year as bribery, kickbacks, deals, favouritism, cronyism and nepotism.

Terming corruption in a poor country like Bangladesh as ''unaffordable and unacceptable'', a 1999 UNDP report came down heavily on political parties and their leadership, student bodies, trade unions, bureaucracy, police, judiciary and business segments.

The World Bank report blamed both the ruling and the mainstream opposition parties for using their powerful trade unions, student and youth fronts for resorting to widespread extortion in return for official largesse and other benefits.

Politicians corrupt the administration through creation, infiltration and patronization of cadres and the police maintain chain and linkages with the politicos, observed the 1999 US human rights report for Bangladesh.

Corruption became institutionalized during the 9-year one-man rule of desposed president H M Ershad who used it to perpetuate his regime. Ershad encouraged rent-seeking practices, bribery, corruption and favouritism. During his regime dishonest industrialists and business men were doled out bank loans without security and a culture of loan default began to catch on. By the time he was eased out of power towards the end of 1990, the size of defaulted loans stood at $2 billion. When the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) came to power in 1991 as many as 21 cases were framed against Ershad - of which 19 were related to corruption.

The former military ruler was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment corruption and spent five years in jail - the entire period of the past BNP government. But after the 1996 general elections both the BNP and the Awami League sought Ershad's help in the formation of the government and he finally tilted towards the Awami League and came out of jail.

Many observers accuse donor countries and agencies of patronizing corruption. A task force headed by Grameen Bank claimed in 1991 that hardly 25 percent of the people of Bangladesh benefitted from aid. Cronies and consultants of the donor agencies in league with local contractors, politicians and officials eating up a lion's of foreign loans, aid and grants, experts say.

Moyeen Khan, member of parliament and minister for planning in the past BNP government, said despite pumping in huge loans and grants at the rate of nearly $2 billion every year since 1974, half of Bangladesh continues mired in poverty.

Corruption makes the rich richer and the poor poorer as latter lack the funds to bribe or pay for the private provision of services that are supposed to be provided free as public services,'' says Bank country director Frederick Temple.

According to the US ambassador to Bangladesh John C Holzman, the rent-seeking behavior of police and government officials and political violence were raising business costs directly and making Bangladesh less competitive in a world economy.

''Because of corruption, money is going to people who are not entrepreneurs and this huge amount of money is being spent in unproductive sectors,'' said A W Mintoo, president of the federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Temple recommends three basic remedies - raising of public service salaries for senior officials, financing of political parties and elections and restricting the scope of the public sector to appropriate roles by encouraging privatization.

According to the UNDP report curbing corruption would result in raising the GDP growth rate by 2.9 percent and result in a 25 percent reduction poverty and a doubling of per capita income from $350 to $700.

Says finance minister Shah Kibria, ''we will have to devise policy instruments and create strong public opinion against the cancer of corruption.''

Kibria said the tragedy was that many people who were vocal against corruption were often among those who indulged in it themselves.

(Inter Press Service)

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�1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.

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