FINANCE Minister AMA Muhith on Thursday admitted that corruption in the government has gobbled as much as Tk 24,735 crore in the outgoing fiscal 2014-15 which is equivalent to 2 to 3 percent of the national economy. His disclosure came at a time when he said corruption is all pervasive in all sectors of the economy and the government. He has blamed social disruption such as political unrest eats up about one percent of the economy suggesting that greater harm to the economy is coming from the pervasive corruption and poor governance. Bribe and toll collection are more harmful to business and investment than any programme of the opposition. Then it also the government’s lack of understanding of politics about how not to force extreme political programme. That is why politics of tolerance and change of government through a fair election is considered essential for political stability and order.The Minister found it unavoidable but showed the courage in admitting the truth about the role of corruption when the government leaders were so long accusing the opposition for all setbacks to the country’s economy. One may remember that the Finance Minister had once said Tk 4,000cr Hall-Mark scam from Sonali Bank was “nothing big”. He also said ‘robbing of stock market not unusual’. But Mr Muhith appears suddenly decrying corruption prompting people to wonder about his role as Finance Minister in organizing the country’s economy to be run without hindrances. He had to take responsibility for the irregularities and swindling of public fund and budgetary resources over all these years. The Finance Minister has allocated fund for wheat import, he may be rightly expected now to ask for accountability. The City Corporations’ coffers are empty, state owned banks have no funds and the government’s borrowing is at the peak for deficit financing and much of it is supposed to go for funding corruption as the minister’s revelation suggests. The government approved Tk 6,067 crore project last week for distributing Tk 20 crore each to 286 MPs and it also smells corruption for the money may be used as hedge fund to local politics. It appears that the GDP growth could easily surpass 8 percent annually if the 2 to 3 percent loss of the resources through corruption could have been stopped.
