Transparency International - Bangladesh Chapter

Annual Report 1997

1997 was an eventful year for Transparency International - Bangladesh. It started to function from its office in Dhaka and one of the first activities was to involve the younger population of the society. As part of its awareness programme TI-Bangladesh invited students in the age range of 15 to 20 to participate in an essay and cartoon competition. The topic on which the participants were requested to submit their essays was "Corruption is the greatest hindrance to our Development".

TI-Bangladesh also launched a programme for journalists. TI-Bangladesh strongly believes that the role of the media is crucial and the strength of investigative journalism is not to be under-estimated. TI-Bangladesh will announce an annual award for the best published original and authentic story by either freelance or employed journalist. TI-Bangladesh has also announced, as part of the investigative journalism programme, scholarship to freelance or employed journalists to take time off regular work in order to spend some time on investigative journalism.

In 1997 TI-Bangladesh published newsletters in both English and Bangla. The newsletters together with other publications can be accessed from TI-Bangladesh website http://www.wordsmith.demon.co.uk/tib.html or via TI website. TI-Bangladesh has a modest number of members and it is steadily rising, as people are becoming aware of TI-Bangladesh's activities. TI-Bangladesh jointly organised a workshop with Rotary and Rotaract clubs and is continuously developing a network with other civil society organisations in order to fulfill its function as a pressure group. TI-Bangladesh is also developing a regional network in South Asia. TI-Bangladesh is planning to hold the next regional meeting of TI chapters in Dhaka.

The most exciting piece of activity of TI-Bangladesh was the release of the 'Corruption in Bangladesh' report in December 1997 (see separate item below). It generated a wide-ranging reaction and was extensively covered by the printed media. There was also a call to ban the chapter due to the report's content on the judiciary. TI-Bangladesh has met with Government ministers to discuss the report and intends to interact with the wider civil society in 1998 in order to address some of the deficiencies in the system, as identified by the household baseline survey. TI-Bangladesh is looking forward to 1998 and beyond with great enthusiasm and zeal.

TI-Bangladesh Nationwide Household Corruption Survey

The results of the three-tier survey conducted by TI-Bangladesh have really set ‘the cat among the pigeons’. The newspaper headlines carrying the results of the survey the morning after the news conference (3-12-1997) give some indication of that: Corruption corroding police, judiciary, schools, media (The Financial Express); Who will police the police? (The Bangladesh Observer); Misuse of position and power in the worst form of corruption in Bangladesh (Bhorer Khagoj); Judiciary and Police are most corrupt (The Daily Janakantha) and Owners influence news items, 84 percent believe (The Daily Star).

The Daily Star in its editorial (6-12-1997) Transparent Corruption stated that ‘Transparency International’s report on the presence of this toxic derivative of civilisation in various professional groups does not contain any new elements of shock except that the proportion is so high among practitioners in this country of professions supposed to be its avowed enemies. The report which was made public Wednesday last put police on top of this opprobrious list followed by judiciary…. This is citing just one angle of the survey, there are many more equally sharp reflectors of the reality projected by public opinion.’ To give a sample of some statistics:

POLICE AND COURTS

• 68% of the households filing complaints with the police had to make payment

• 49% of the households had reported to make prior arrangement with the police on payment for disposal of their cases

• 71% of the households expressed the view that filing of court cases were deliberately delayed by the police

• 63% of the households involved in court cases reported that they had to bribe the court officials

• 53% of the households bribed the court officials directly and more than one-fourth (28%) reported making payment of bribe through lawyers

EDUCATION

• 74% of the households said that they required extra-regular methods to get children into school

• 49% of the households stated that it was possible for children to get good results or promotion into higher class without hiring teacher as private tutor

HEALTH

• 40% of households reported extra payment to get admission into hospitals

• 41% of households reported that they did not get medicine without extra pay

In terms of public perception, rather than people’s experience as revealed in the figures above, the results are equally alarming.

PUBLIC OFFICE VIEWED AS MOST CORRUPT

• 58% of households considered Police station to be most corrupt; and

• 18% of households considered Courts to be second most corrupt.

PERCEIVED REASONS OF CORRUPTION

• 76% of the households indicated ‘get rich quick’ to be the reason

• 58% indicated ‘moral degradation’

• 51% indicated ‘lack of accountability’

• 32% indicated ‘inadequate salary’

Such facts and figures were included in newspaper editorials and feature articles, and some of them appeared even after a month of the release of the survey results, reflecting both the depth and intensity of interest of the civil society. Unfortunately, but understandably, the survey report attracted a call for the banning of TI-Bangladesh.

As part of the dissemination programme TI-Bangladesh has widely circulated the report, also to be found on TI-Bangladesh website, and has briefed various Government ministers and senior civil servants. TI-Bangladesh is now in the process of developing an advocacy project in order to influence the Government of Bangladesh to make changes in key areas of governance in the identified priority areas. TI-Bangladesh intends to carry out such grassroots surveys in the years to come in order to establish a credible database for future programmes.