DHAKA, 2 Nov 2019:
Mohammad Shipon moved his small fruit shop from Dhaka’s Karwan Bazar to a nearby footpath in September – to save a portion of his earnings which he was forced to pay in bribe to keep his business running.
“I had to pay 250 taka (US$3) each day to a political group, city corporation officials and the leaders of a market association. It was almost half of the daily profit. I was struggling to survive with (only) the rest of the money.”
After moving to the new place – just opposite to a five-star hotel and near a big TV station – Shipon said he still needed to pay some money to a political group, which him claimed, share a portion of it with police.
“Here it is a little better because I have to give them now 120 taka daily. They come every evening and collect the money,” said the 30-year old Shipon, who lives in a Dhaka slum with his wife.
“I don’t have to bribe police directly, but those who take money from us, say they give police a share.”
Shipon, whose earns about 12,000 taka a month, said his life could have been better if he didn’t have to share his earnings.
“Since I need to pay a toll, it’s obvious I charge my customers more. But it’s a competitive market. Whenever people see I am asking for a higher price, they go away. So my daily sales get limited to just around 3,000 taka.”
Shipon, from northern Mymensingh district, is one of the thousands of small traders, believed to be the victims of the petty corruption – which is making the poor poorer in the poverty-stricken country.
According to the latest survey by Berlin-based Transparency International, 66.5% surveyed Bangladesh families have been the victims of corruption and 89% of them had bribed officials.
“The effect of petty corruption on people is direct, especially on the poor (…) We have seen the burden of corruption on the low-income group is higher than the high-income group,” said Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International, Bangladesh.
“In our latest survey published in 2018, we (found) 62% of people of the country are victims of petty corruption in the service sector, which is the highest level. The sectors which should curb corruption, like police, judiciary (…) are also mostly corrupt.”
Transparency International ranks Bangladesh currently 149th on its global corruption index and the second most corrupt in South Asia behind only Afghanistan. This is an improvement from 2001-2005 when it was ranked the most corrupt country.
But economists say corruption prevails deeply in the society – which is one of the reasons Bangladesh is struggling to alleviate poverty.
“The poverty is linked to corruption from two aspects. One is the poverty alleviation programmes, which do not come very effective if there is corruption. The other one is the economic opportunities that the poor are sometimes deprived of due to corruption,” said Hossain Zillur Rahman, an economist.
“If there was no corruption, the economic activities would have been expanded and poor people also would have benefited,” said Rahman, also a former adviser of the government.
Consumer Association of Bangladesh has found the cost of living in the country was increasing due to corruption.
“Corruptions are of many types. In the transport sector, we see extortion, which is also a kind of corruption. It increases the cost of the product and the poor have to pay for it. They are the ultimate victims of corruption,” said CAB president Golam Rahman, who is also a former chairman of the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission.
The government recently launched a crackdown against corruption and gambling in the country. As part of this drive, few influential leaders of the ruling party were arrested while bank accounts of a few others are frozen.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) also served notices to dozens of others seeking their wealth statements.
Commission spokesperson Pranab Kumar Bhattacharjee said they were taking these steps against the ruling group as a routine work.
“Any individual can come under ACC scanner when we receive specific allegation that the person has accumulated illegal wealth or hid sources of income.”
The ACC official said the commission had no mechanism to scale any act of corruption as big or small as the law specified the crime as crime only.
“ACC is taking action against public servants if they are involved in money laundering, taking bribes or anyone comes with a specific allegation.”
Transparency International’s Iftekharuzzaman welcomed the drive against political leaders but said it has to be a part of a comprehensive strategy.
“The drive is okay, but it’s not enough. So far what we have seen is the drive against selective people. They are handpicked.”
– EFE