PASSPORT, road transport administration, law enforcement and judicial services have come up to be the top four corrupt services sectors from 2017 to 2023, as Transparency International Bangladesh surveys for 2023, 2021 and 2017, the latest three of the surveys that the corruption watchdog have published since 1997, show. In the 2021 and 2017 surveys, the most corrupt service sectors were the same and in the same order 鈥斅� law enforcement, passport, road transport administration and judicial services. Only in the latest, Corruption in Service Sectors: National Household Survey 2023 that was made public on December 3, passport services have topped the list and road transport administration services have defeated law enforcement. Land services sector has come in the fifth place in the 2023 survey whilst in the fifth place, it was health services sector in the 2021 survey and land services sector in the 2017 survey. The 2015 survey lists passport, law enforcement, education, road transport and land administration services as the most corrupt sectors and the 2012 survey lists law enforcement, judicial services, education, agriculture, and tax and customs services as the most corrupt sectors. All this suggests that the government鈥檚 claimed commitment towards eliminating corruption, including the National Integrity Strategy that was introduced in October 2012, was hardly anything but rhetorical.
The latest report shows that about 71 per cent of the households surveyed faced corruption in getting services in 2023 and 50.8 per cent of the households had to pay bribes for services. It further shows that service-seekers paid Tk 109.02 billion in bribes to get services in 2023 which accounts for 0.22 per cent of the gross domestic product for the 2024 financial year. The survey also adds that service-seekers have paid Tk 1,460 billion in bribes between 2009 and April 2024, almost the whole consecutive tenures of the Awami League government, which was toppled in a mass uprising on August 5, to access essential services. The 2023 report says that 86 per cent of the households seeking passport services faced corruption against 70.5 per cent that the 2021 report showed. In road transport administration services, 85.20 per cent of households are reported by the 2023 survey to have faced corruption against 68.3 per cent in the 2021 survey whilst in law enforcement services, 74.5 per cent of the households are reported by the 2023 survey to have faced corruption against 70.5 per cent as reported in the 2021 survey. Transparency International Bangladesh says that there are several tools to fight corruption but they have not been properly used, causing the persistence of high levels of corruption.
If no surveillance, no punishment for offences and rhetorical steps continue to persist, it is only natural that corruption could be institutionalised. If corruption becomes institutionalised, the row would be hard enough for the authorities to hoe. The government should, therefore, take legal action against individuals and quarters involved in corruption and strengthen institutions of accountability and other public agencies so that they could play a role in fighting corruption. In the changed political context, which came about with the toppling of the Awami League government, it should not be that hard given the will.