Sagar Biswas :
Corruption is everywhere — business sector, health, utility services, education, law enforcement agencies, road transport and where not!
While the government spokesmen are very much vocal about their development and success stories, the reality says different thing. Despite huge exposure, the condition of foreign direct investment [FDI] is very poor in Bangladesh in comparison to Myanmar.
Not only that, the condition of local investment is also not satisfactory at all. Several businessmen have expressed anxiety saying that they are facing tough time to run their businesses. Especially, the business farms in the city’s posh Gulshan, Baridhara and Banani areas are still bearing the brunt of anti-militancy programme. Apart from it, the new business farms have been reported to be subjected to expensive and useless license and permit requirements. It is alleged that politicians are involved in giving contracts to foreign companies by taking bribes in closed-door negotiations.
Dozens of high-rise buildings have been constructed in different parts of the city, including Motijheel and Dilkusha, taking bank loans. But most of these are vacant, as businessmen are showing less interest to buy or rent the floor spaces for new ventures.
On the other hand, the traders of roadside makeshift stalls have to depend on the mercy of corrupt administrative officials and a section of ruling party leaders. It is impossible for them to run their businesses without paying bribe and extortion simultaneously.
To realize the extent of corruption, another example can be given. The social safety net scheme taken by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, where rice is sold at Tk 10 per kilogram, has been facing setback due to widespread corruption by ruling party men under auspices of the Food Ministry.
The Anti-Corruption Commission, formed in 2004, is considered to be largely ineffective in investigating and preventing corruption. It is assumed that, the public sectors conducted by the government are the most corrupt sectors of the country, where the ACC is helpless.
The Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International defines corruption as: “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.” It said there is no improvement as far as corruption in Bangladesh is concerned. In its latest Corruptions Perception Index, the TI suggested Bangladesh 13th most corrupt country across the globe.
Amid sluggish business activities and investment scenario, the forex reserve has now touched US$ 31.90 billion, meaning the reserves have grown by 30 times in all these years. Against this backdrop, Fellow at the Asian Center for Development Sharjil Haque in an article opined that, the rising foreign exchange reserve has created challenges for the central bank in terms of exchange rate management, containing inflation, maintaining profitability and productively allocating public resources.
A World Bank study says, corruption in its many forms, especially bribery, nepotism, fraud and embezzlement adversely impacts the economies. The study shows that the level of corruption in countries with emerging economies is much higher than it is in developed countries.
Interestingly, some research considers corruption an instrument to ‘grease the wheels’. ‘In this view, corruption helps to overcome cumbersome bureaucratic constraints, inefficient provision of public services, and rigid laws,’ opined Anna Kochanova, Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
It is to be noted that, the lawmakers of both ruling Awami League and Opposition party taking part in the budget discussion said that it would not be possible to build a “Sonar Bangla” if corruption, money embezzlement and laundering are not stopped.
To achieve the said goal, the MPs urged the AL-led government to take stringent measures against all sorts of financial indiscipline, including money-looting from the banks and money siphoning to foreign countries. But nobody pays heed to their call!
The other side of the lunar is called ‘dark side of the Moon’ as it is never visible from the Earth. Like it, the development which is afflicted by high level of corruption can never bring well-being to the nation as its prosperity does not reflect on common people’s life.
And it is called corrupt economy. Bangladesh is now nourishing this corrupt economy. In fact, widespread corruptions in political and economic operations cause its entire nation to suffer.
