Staff Reporter :
Accepting Transparency International’s (TI) report on corruption in Bangladesh, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said the scenario in country’s corruption level has not been improved.”I believe that there is no headway in reducing corruption in Bangladesh. In a sense, we could not even start work against corruption,” the finance minister admitted.
“We have only taken few steps to check corruption,” he said.
Muhith made the remarks while talking to the journalists after the meeting of cabinet committee on purchase at the Secretariat on Wednesday. Replying to a query of a journalist, the minister said that the TI’s report might be the reflection of the image of the corruption.
He said, “Digital system in everywhere is very important to reduce corruption and the system is now in undergoing process.”
“A good number of officials, including Hall Mark and some high-profile bank staffs, have already been arrested in connection with corruption which had never been seen in Bangladesh. It is the part of our initiative against corruption,” Muhith said. However, for the second year in a row, Bangladesh ranked 13th from the bottom – and 139th from the top – in 2015, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman disclosed this at a press conference in the city on Wednesday.
According to CPI 2015, Bangladesh is again the second-worst performer in South Asia, better only than war-ravaged Afghanistan, which scored 11 and ranked 166th, the second lowest in the glob.
