NEWS reports said quoting a TIB report published on Wednesday that Passport sector is the most corrupt service sector followed by the law enforcement agencies and education. Needless to say that Passport offices have direct link from the poor to middle income section of our population, as their young people make desperate attempt to go abroad for jobs. Passport agents are at work at every level from rural areas to urban life and police are earning handsome at the same time from Passport seekers in the name of police verification. It is part of human trafficking and the TIB report has rightly identified the mischief making that is relentlessly exploiting the rural and urban poor in their attempt to make passport for young family members. A machine-readable passport cost Tk 3,000 as standard fees to be handed over in two weeks but Passport agents realize over Tk 10,000 to 15000 while putting the passport-seekers on move that also included additional cost.The crowd of passport-seekers and their agents in front of and around the Passport Office at the city’s Agargaon area and also in the districts alone showed the high value of this business taking place in the sideline. It is quite necessary to stop the exploitation but given the law and order situation now prevailing in the country any quick remedial measures also can’t be expected. This is because when police and the entire machinery of the government is corrupt and habituated to realize bribes the remedy from such exploitation is far out of sight. The report titled ‘TIB National Household Survey 2015’ further showed that 77.7 percent households fell victim to corruption while securing services from passport offices, 74.6 percent bribed law enforcement agencies and 60.8 percent bribed educational institutions. Some other indicators showed overall, 67.8 percent households were victims of corruption in 2015. The rate was almost the same (67.3 percent) in 2012 when the TIB conducted its last household survey. The amount of bribe paid by households last year was Tk 1,497 crore more than that in 2012. The survey that covered 15,206 rural and urban households made sensational revelation but not out of national context as it showed that bribe paid by households is steadily on the rise.The survey revealed high presence of corruption and bribes in almost every sector of the economy including local government, judiciary, gas and electricity, agriculture, tax office, insurance, banking, NGOs and what not. In fact corruption and bribing are treated as alternative economy, which is the informal part of the formal cost of services at almost all levels. But people have been forced to pay it using their helplessness. Indeed we are undone as a nation.
