The Department of Immigration and Passports has been found to be the most corrupt service provider, followed by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and law enforcement agencies, according to a survey conducted by the Transparency International Bangladesh.
The survey also found that almost 71 per cent of the surveyed households faced corruption while getting service in 2023 and 50.8 per cent households had to pay bribes to get service.
The TIB on Tuesday unveiled the Corruption in Service Sectors: National Household Survey 2023 on 15,515 households across the country at a press conference at its office at Dhanmondi in the capital.
Service seekers paid an estimated Tk 1.46 lakh crore in bribes between 2009 and April 2024 to access essential facilities during the tenure of the Awami League government, said the survey.聽
Barisal Division reported the highest rates of corruption and bribery, with 82 per cent households affected by corruption and 61.9 per cent experiencing bribery.
TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman said that there were several tools available to combat corruption, but the lack of proper utilisation of the tools contributed to the persistence of high-level corruption.
鈥業t is usual that any sort of crime will turn institutional and spread its wings in the absence of punishment and surveillance,鈥� he said.
He, however, expressed hope that during the interim government, examples of accountability would be set,聽聽 paving the way for better practices in the future.
The survey revealed that service seekers paid Tk 10,902.3 crore in bribes to access services in 2023, which accounts for 0.22 per cent of the GDP for the financial year 2023-24.
The corruption watchdog has been publishing this report on different service sectors since 1997.
According to the report, irregularities and corruption remained prevalent in passport service as 86 per cent households endured corruption in 2023 to get service compared to 70.5 per cent in the 2021 report.
Apart from this, 74.8 per cent of the surveyed people reported incidents of bribery with 46.5 per cent reporting delays, 39.4 per cent reporting reliance on brokers, 18.1 per cent reporting harassment and 9.8 per cent reporting negligence of duties.
Households that paid bribes for passport services reported an average bribe of Tk 4,879.
Households applying for emergency passports reported 86.1 per cent corruption rate while those applying for ordinary passports reported 83.4 per cent corruption rate.
In BRTA-related services, at least 85.20 per cent households faced corruption in 2023 compared with 68.3 per cent in 2021.
The survey shed light on the nature and extent of corruption within the BRTA offices as 85.2 per cent of households that received services from the BRTA experienced corruption.聽
Vehicle drivers reported a 89.1 per cent rate of corruption while vehicle owners reported a corruption rate of 83.3 per cent for BRTA services.
The survey found that 71.9 per cent of the households receiving BRTA services had to pay bribes or make unauthorised payments.
Other forms of corruption included forced engagement of brokers or harassment by them 36.6 per cent, delays 35.2 per cent and misconduct 12.5 per cent. The average bribe paid for BRTA services was Tk 6,654.
Households obtaining driving licences reported the highest rate of corruption among BRTA services with 90.8 per cent experiencing corruption while 79.4 per cent households paid bribes for driving licence-related services with an average payment of Tk 6,172.
During their interactions with law enforcement agencies, 74.5 per cent households reported experiencing corruption in 2023 compared with 70.5 per cent in 2021.
The most common type of corruption was bribery 58.3 per cent, followed by harassment 22.3 per cent. Households that paid or were forced to pay bribes spent an average of Tk 5,221, the survey found.
The highest rates of corruption were reported for services provided by the Traffic Police 92 per cent, Highway Police 89.1 per cent and police stations 67.4 per cent while the lowest corruption rate was associated with the Special Branch 17.3 per cent.
Among the households receiving services from law enforcement agencies, the highest 90.5 per cent reported paying bribes to the Special Branch while the lowest 70.2 per cent paid bribes to police stations.
The highest percentage of households reported experiencing corruption during police verification for passports was 84.5, followed by traffic-related services 81.7, arrest-related interactions 74.7 and filing first information reports 70.0.聽
Bribery was most prevalent in police verification for passports (75.1 per cent), followed by police clearance services (69.1 per cent) and traffic services (60.1 per cent. The lowest 38.7 per cent households paid bribes for filing general diaries.
The fourth most corrupt sector was judicial service as 62.3 per cent households faced corruption, followed by 51 per cent for land service, 49.1 per cent for health service, 44.2 per cent for local government institutes, 41 per cent for NID service, 31.4 per cent for climate change and disaster assistance service, 26.4 per cent for power, 26 per cent for education, 24.5 per cent for agriculture, 17.9 per cent for VAT and taxes, 16.2 per cent for insurance, 9 per cent for banking,聽 6.5 per cent for NGO service and 11.1 per cent for WASA, online shopping and other services.
On average, the bribe was Tk 5,680 in 2023 in the service sector. The households provided the highest bribe of Tk 30,972 on average to get judicial service, followed by land-related service Tk 114.776 and banking service Tk 6.654, said the report.
More than 77.2 per cent of the respondents said that they had to bribe to get services.
The TIB recommended that legal actions must be taken against individuals involved in corruption.
In this regard, the Anti-Corruption Commission as well as the relevant departments and institutions should play an active role, it added.