Corruption in B’desh increases, says report

Almost 97 per cent of the people had been victims of corruption and 65 per cent had to pay bribes while dealing with law-enforcing agencies, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) said in its report released on Wednesday.

It said corruption in education, health, land administration, local government and in different utility services sectors increased in the first half of 2007 despite the caretaker government’s anti-corruption drives.

In terms of magnitude, law enforcing agencies including the joint forces, police and elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were found to be the most corrupt while land administration was the most corrupt in terms of the amount of bribe that went into any sector, the study said.

Bribery claimed 3.84 per cent of per capita income of the country during the period as the people of the country had to pay USD 79 million in bribes for different public and private sector services.

No major distinction was found in the magnitude of corruption in urban and rural areas, which is a proof of the deep rooted nature of the menace,” TIB trustee board chairman Professor Muzaffer Ahmad said as the study report was released.

“Essentially petty corruption has increased during the tenure of this government, but our survey report has not captured corporate or grand corruption,” he said.