Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Corruption in Bangladesh

In a country where 40 percent of the population lives less than a dollar a day, corruption is keeping the Bangladesh economy from improving. People have to pay bribes to get jobs, shop keepers raise their prices to keep up with bribes they have to pay and there are many more examples. Foreign investment dollars will not come into the country until corruption is cleaned up, but do government officials really want to clean it up?

From this great analysis from Reuters, reporter Anis Ahmed details how corruption keeps Bangladesh's economy from moving up.

Global watchdog Transparency International rated Bangladesh the world's most corrupt nation for five consecutive years from 2001. Subsequently the rating improved, to 10th in 2008, after a military-backed interim government took tough anti-graft steps.

However, TIB says its latest research confirms widespread corruption remains, and some others say it is getting worse again. The authories deny that, saying the monitors base their judgment mainly on often inflated media reports.

But people struggling day in and day out to make a living blame corruption for many of their problems.

"You will face it everywhere," said Shahadat Hossain, a teacher at a government primary school.

"I had to pay 100,000 taka ($1,430) as bribe to get this job. But the poor salary I get covers only a part of my expenses," he told Reuters.

"Grocery sellers ask higher prices every next day, doctors at government clinics won't treat my child without money or give me medicine supposed to be a free handout."

The government admits efforts to contain prices and introduce graft-free practices have largely failed, even though populist Prime Minister Hasina, who took office in January following a widely acclaimed democratic election, promised to address them.

"Corruption has spread like cancer in our country and society," said Mahabub Hossain, executive director of Bangladesh's biggest NGO and leading micro-credit agency, BRAC.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thousands of Suits / Litigations are pending in Different Courts of Bangladesh due to illegal occupation of land ignoring documents and title right by miscreants.
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The officials of Land Survey Department, District Settlement Office and all Subordinate Office concerning the Land Administrations are also responsible for many of the litigations and anomalies. As they are responsible for prepare and maintain records & parcha and other related documents of land willfully in the name of some other people or concern ignoring deed & title right. depriving the actual land owner.
Such type of corrupt practices of officials of Land Survey Department, Settlement Offices including related subordinate offices upto uphajila level are known to all corner..
It shall continue as the officials of the above organizations can not be made responsible nor they can be taken to the court for loss and damages of owner of land since the colonial period to till date. Correction of records, parcha & related documents of concerned lands at present are very much complicated , lengthy and expensive system. Due to which majority of effected person can not efforts due to which loss of legal right of ownerships of his land by this time the illegal occupier changes the faces or position of the lands depriving the actual owner.
Government may come forward to take immediate steps to ensure accountability at all stages of land survey department including settlement office and other land related subordinate offices against manipulation and malpractices during land survey, preparation of Records , Parcha and Mouja Map in the name of force full occupier of land or other organizations.
Experts opinions are that application TORT LAW ensure the process of accountability & prevent existing malpractices by officials in most of the countries & also help the process of prolong litigation which yields no result finally. TORT LAW also protect poor people becoming more and more poor due to repression, oppression It will be highly appreciated if you kindly circulate the above to all level for creation of awareness among the peoples , international community as well as patriot political worker. leader or intellectual group, & policy maker of Bangladesh .
The Peoples

Siddhartha said...

Most of the communities in the entire Indian sub-continent(such as Bengali) are succumbed in ‘Culture of Poverty'(Oscar Lewis), irrespective of class or economic strata, lives in pavement or apartment. Nobody is genuinely regret ed or ashamed of the deep-rooted corruption, decaying general quality of life, worst Politico-administrative system, bad work place, weak mother language, continuous consumption of common social space (mental as well as physical, both). We are becoming fathers & mothers only by self-procreation, mindlessly & blindfold(supported by some lame excuses). Simply depriving their(the children) fundamental rights of a decent, caring society, fearless & dignified living. Do not ever look for any other positive alternative behaviour (values) to perform human way of parenthood, i.e. deliberately co-parenting children those are born out of ignorance, extreme poverty. It seems that all of us are being driven only by the very animal instinct. If the Bengali people ever be able to bring that genuine freedom (from vicious cycle of ‘poverty’) in their own attitude, involve themselves in ‘Production of Space’ (Henri Lefebvre), an intense attachment with the society at large - one different pathway has to create to overcome inherent 'hopeless' psyche, decent & rich Politics will definitely come up. – Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, 16/4, Girish Banerjee Lane, Howrah-711101, India.