NEWS SCAN DATABASE REPORT

(Factual)

January-June 2000

News Scan Database Team

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL BANGLADESH
Dhaka
September 2000

Contents

Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Corruption in Bangladesh

1.2 TIB and Curbing Corruption

1.3 Objectives

Chapter Two: About Database

2.1 What is It

2.2 Methodology

2.2.1 List of the Selected Newspapers

2.2.2 Selection and Sorting Stories

2.2.3 Questionnaires

2.2.4 Cross Checking

2.2.5 Computerization of Data

2.2.6 Analysis of Data

2.2.7 Working Definition of Corruption

2.2.8 Types of Corruption

2.2.9 Study Period

2.2.10 Sectors Included

2.3 Limitations

2.4 Accuracy of the news and Corroboration

Chapter Three: The Corruption Menace

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Corruption by Sector/Department/Directorate

3.3 Corruption in Law Enforcement Agency

3.4 Corruption in Local Government

3.5 Corruption in Education

3.6 Corruption in Health

3.7 Corruption in Forest & Environment

3.8 Corruption in Direct and Indirect Tax

3.9 Corruption in Finance

3.10 Corruption in Communication

3.11 Corruption in Water Resources

3.12 Corruption in Post & Telecommunication

3.13 Corruption in Power Sector

3.14 Corruption in Land Administration

3.15 Corruption by Administrative Thana/Upazila

3.16 Corruption by Administrative District

3.17 Corruption by Official Level

3.18 Reported Cases by Newspaper

Chapter Four: Impacts of Corruption and Action Taken

4.1 Victims of Corruption

4.2 Types of Effects in Reported Cases

4.3 Financial Loss in Reported Cases

4.4 Action Taken in Reported Cases

Chapter Five: Comparison Between Database Report 1997 and 2000

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Comparative Analysis

Chapter Six: Conclusion

Preface

It is needless to say that corruption is one of the main obstacles to sustainable economic development. All of the sectors, departments and directorates of the government of Bangladesh is now inundated with corruption. This damaging phenomenon tends to reduce foreign and domestic investments, diminishes availability of resources, deepens the extent of poverty and people's trust in democracy is destroyed.

In order to emancipate from this curse and make the people aware, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has launched to collect corruption reports published in some leading national dailies and generates News Scan Database Reports taking information from the reports.

I strongly acknowledge the efforts of the researchers of TIB for doing this excellent work. I also thank Dr. Jamal Munshi, Associate Professor of California State University who was indispensably involved with this work. I also grateful to Prof. Mozaffer Ahmad for his valuable suggestions in this work.

I hope that the concerned citizens and others should read the report carefully and make its proper usage.

Manzoor Hasan
Executive Director

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The News Scan Database Report of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) is a joint production by the researchers of TIB although one of the researchers worked as anchor person of the project.

The person who helped the researchers of TIB with this program is DR. Jamal Munshi, Associate Professor of California State University. TIB Database Team is strongly acknowledging him.

TIB is also acknowledging Prof. Mozaffar Ahmad, one of the trustees of TIB for his valuable suggestions.

Md. Abdul Alim
On behalf of Database Team
TIB

Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Corruption in Bangladesh

Located in South Asia, Bangladesh is one of those least developed countries in the world with per-capita income of around 350 US dollar. Typical of a developing country, Bangladesh reflects suffering from widespread poverty, over-population, illiteracy, malnutrition, dearth of resources, backward economy, political instability and all-pervasive corruption at all levels of society and governmental institutions.

There is a widespread belief that corruption exists at almost all levels of government in Bangladesh (WB 1996, TIB 1996). This damaging phenomenon impedes economic growth by reducing foreign and domestic investments, diminishes availability of resources, threatens legitimacy of state, retards human development and deepens the extent of poverty. Government decision and policy mechanism has become ineffective and people’s confidence in governance is adversely affected. Simultaneously, democracy is stifled and people's trust in democracy is also diminished. Several reports of donors and international organizations on Bangladesh revealed that the country is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) ranks it as the fourth most corrupt country (TI Corruption Perception Index 1996). The World Bank study on the state of corruption (WB 2000) said that without widespread corruption Bangladesh could achieve some 2-3 percentages point of additional GDP growth and a double per-capita income. The UNDP report (Poverty Report 2000) also termed Bangladesh as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The report ranked it as the lowest among South Asian countries and 146^th among UN members as far as human rights and development concerned. Furthermore, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union (EU) alarmed Bangladesh by stating that the country has not been able to attract a substantial amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) due to corruption, lack of transparency and bureaucratic tangles. The Mahbubul Haque Human Development Centre in its survey of corruption scenario on Bangladesh (HDC 1999) also revealed some typologies of corruption prevailing in Bangladesh.

All those above-mentioned reports and studies point to the fact that corruption is a typical phenomenon in many of those developing countries and in case of Bangladesh it manifested in a very acute form. From the economic point of view it hampers development process and undermines poverty alleviation effort undertaken by the government and other national and international organizations. As far as human rights and development is concerned, public sector is extremely inadequate to meet the challenge. The donor countries and multilateral agencies are taking a serious look into the question of governance that includes elimination of corruption, introduction of transparency, and accountability in pursuance of effective poverty reduction policies. The people of Bangladesh also want to break away from this national disease.

1.2 TIB and the Fight against Corruption

Transparency International (TI) is a worldwide non-profit organization dedicated to improving governance by addressing issues such as corruption, transparency and accountability. In 1996 a group of concerned citizens decided to organize a chapter of Transparency International in Bangladesh (TIB). TIB has been established as a trust organization and appointed its first Executive Director who possesses legal background with human rights experience.

In 1997 TIB published its Survey on Corruption in Bangladesh, which attracted considerable media attention. Data found in this survey are being used in a number of reports and articles. TIB has organized workshops to mobilize the civil society. It is making some briefing papers on some specific institutions, forming Committees of Concerned Citizens (CCCs), implementing report cards on public service delivery systems, producing Facts Finding Exercise (FFE) reports on some government watchdog agencies etc. All of these projects are aimed at raising awareness on this issue and curbing corruption.

As a part of fighting against corruption, TIB is going to launch Newscan Database program disseminating from the first half-yearly report.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to find out the extent and pervasiveness of corruption in all levels and sectors of the government and how it affects the ultimate recipient of those services. The specific objectives are:

1. To find out the most corrupt government institution(s);
2. To find the most corrupt level of official of the government;
3. To identify the area where incidence of corruption is highest and lowest;
4. To identify the victims and the effects of corruption;
5. To try to measure monetary losses;
6. To encourage the newspapers to play a vital role in curbing corruption;
7. To raise awareness among general people and concerned groups about the extent of corruption;
8. To draw attention of the policy makers on this issue;
9. For TIB to play a strong role in eliminating corruption and improving accountability and transparency in the public service delivery system.

Chapter Two: About News Scan Database

2.1 What is it?

News Scan Database is a newspaper survey on corruption. Everyday a number of stories are published in the newspapers that involve practice of corruption in governmental and other organizations. TIB Database Team collects these stories relating to corruption, accumulates necessary information and stores them in the computer. This database is used to generate reports on various parameters and this reports will be disseminate half-yearly and annually. Some characteristics of the database are:

• it is a relational database i.e. it can recognize the connection between stored items of information and organize data in a simple, tabular form and provide many advantages;
• governance context i.e. dealing with the activities or manner of governing ;
• efficiency of diagnosis i.e. it has ability to identify the nature of problems of the study area;
• effectiveness of measures i.e. it has ability to reach up to a standard required.

2.2 Methodology

This study was carried out in several steps.

2.2.1 List of the Selected Newspapers

The first step of this study was the selection of newspapers. In this study the total number of newspapers scanned were nine. Six of them were national Bengali dailies and the other three were national English dailies. Careful consideration was given in selecting those dailies in terms of their publication network and news coverage.

Table 2.1: Name of the Newspapers

The names of the newspapers were The Daily Star, The Daily Ittefaq, The Daily Janakantha, The Daily Jugantor, The Daily Prothom Alo, The Daily Observer, The Daily Bhorer Kagoj, The Daily Financial Express and The Daily Sangbad.

For further enrichment of our database we have already included three additional national dailies from last August and six local dailies from six divisions.

2.2.2 Selection and Sorting of Stories

In this survey, reading newspapers was our first step. As per our definition, we identified reported cases on corruption, cut them out and gathered the paper cutting in separate boxes according to sector. For example, all the paper cuttings related to police were stored in one box.

2.2.3 Questionnaires

Data or information from the paper cuttings was collected through individual questionnaire. The questionnaire contains both structured and unstructured questions. So it was a semi-structured questionnaire. A little portion of it was in descriptive format. The questionnaire was known as Data Capture Form. The questionnaire covered the name of the newspaper, publication date and reporter’s name, types of corruption, name of the organization, geographical location, types of actor, levels of actor, types of transactions, victims and effects of the corruption, amount loss, time of occurrence, action taken, action taken by and description of the event. All this information was collected through data capture form.

2.2.4 Cross Checking

The possibility of duplication of taking same report published in more than one newspaper was avoided through a careful system of cross checking. Before capturing the data, newspaper cuttings on a specific case were gathered from all the mentioned dailies. However information was taken only from one of the paper cuttings that provided the most information. The name of the other newspapers containing the same news was also provided in the data capture form as additional newspapers with publication dates and reporter’s names section. Furthermore, the computer program we used also checked the duplications of any reported case and as a result we could avoid duplications.

2.2.5 Computerization of Data

Data was transferred from manual data capture form to computerized Microsoft Access based program. The program used very similar format to the Data Capture Form to store relevant information on corruption cases.

2.2.6 Analysis of Data

The data were analyzed using Microsoft Access and SQL (Structured Query Language). Microsoft Access is a widely used windows program while SQL is a tool for organizing, managing, and retrieving data stored by a computer database. It is a comprehensive language for controlling and interacting with a database management system. It is also a structured language, especially when compared to highly structured languages such as C, Pascal, or Java.

2.2.7 Working Definition of Corruption

All forms of corruption involve the abuse of a public office for personal gain. These episodes may be either transactional or non-transactional. Transactional corruption involves a transaction between a public sector entity and a private sector entity. The act of corruption subverts this transaction for personal gain by one or both parties either in cash or in kind at the expense of society at large. Power vested in public officials is abused in subverting the transaction. Either party may initiate the subversion of the transaction. The transaction may be for a service that is withheld to extort bribes or for extra-legal considerations.

In non-transactional corruption public officials abuse the power of their office or the access to public resources available through their office for private gain. Non-transactional corruption may be either collusive or non-collusive. Non-collusive corruption is a form of embezzlement. The public official, alone or in concert with other public agencies, diverts public wealth to personal wealth. In the collusive form the public official, as a partner or shareholder, allows a private sector enterprise to raid public resources.

Diagram of corruption forms

Example 1: Land survey official delays survey until the corruption event occurs

Example 2: Court officials alter evidence to favor the corruption client

Example 3: Minister approves "sick industry" classification for corruption client.

Example 4: Forestry official is a shareholder in an illegal logging enterprise

Example 5: Sale of public resources at a discount is granted to son-in-law

Example 6: Inflating or inventing expenses hides diverted funds.

2.2.8 Types of Corruption:

After studying newspaper cases on corruption for a number of days, TIB Database Team grouped them into following types.

1. Bribery
2. Misuse of resources
3. Abuse of power
4. Refusal; to provide services/perform duties
5. Embezzlement
6. Extortion
7. Fraud
8. Nepotism
9. Influence peddling

2.2.9 Study Period:

TIB Database Team started to develop its database from the beginning of this year and it is an ongoing project. This report is based on six months of data collection, from January to June 2000.

2.2.10 Sectors Included:

In this study we looked on the irregularities of 37 sectors/departments/directorates. These areas were selected based on news coverage. The study areas were as follows:

Education:

• Primary School
• Secondary School
• College
• University
• Madrasha
• Technical Institute
• Education Board
• Food for Education
• Education Office (Upazila & District)
• Medical College Administration
• Education Ministry

Passport & Immigration:

• Passport
• Immigration

Sports & Youth:

• Youth
• Sports

Cultural Affairs:

• Museum
• Culture

Direct & Indirect Taxation:

• Revenue (land)
• Customs
• Taxation (including VAT)

Health:

• Hospital (Medical College)
• Health Complex (Upazila & District)
• Civil Surgeon Office
• Family Planning
• Health Ministry

Commerce & Industry:

• Government Industry
• Government Corporation

Forest & Environment:

• Forest Department
• Department of Environment
• BFIDC

Agriculture:

• BADC
• Ministry of Agriculture

Transport:

• Bangladesh Railway
• BRTC
• BRTA
• Roads & Highways

Shipping:

• Port Authority
• BIWTA
• BIWTC
• BSC

Disaster Management and Relief:

• Disaster Management
• Red Crescent

Finance:

• Bank
• Insurance Company
• Investment Company
• IRD
• ERD

Information:

• Information Ministry
• Mass Communication

Religious Affair:

• Religious Ministry
• Islamic Foundation

Post & Telecommunication:

• BTTB
• Post Office

Water Resources:

• WAPDA
• WDB
• Irrigation Projects
• Water Ministry

Power:

• DESA
• PDB
• PBS
• REB

Energy And Mineral Resource:

• Atomic Energy
• Petrobangla
• Bangladesh Gas Fields

Law Enforcement:

• BDR
• Police
• Ansar & VDP

Judiciary:

• Judiciary ( Higher & Lower)
• Public Prosecution
• Grameen Shalish

Local Government:

• Union Parishad
• Upazila/Thana Parishad
• District Parishad
• WASA
• Pourashava
• City Corporation
• LGED
• PHED
• Development Authority
• Local Government Ministry

Civil Aviation & Tourism:

• Bangladesh Biman
• Civil Aviation

Others:

• Fisheries & Livestock
• Department of Narcotics
• Food Department
• Land Administration
• Election Commission
• Bureau of Anti-corruption
• Defense Service
• Public Works & Housing
• Prison Administration
• Parliamentary Affairs
• Private Service Organization (excluding NGOs)
• Political Party
• NGO

2.3 Limitations of the Study

This study had a number of limitations. They are:

1. Misidentification of Corruption Type: (a) Corruption type was not specified in some news coverage. This type of reported stories just said "he was suspended due to corruption" or something likes that. In many cases it did not specify like " he was suspended due to bribery or abuse of power or negligence of duty or something like that. (b) There are different types of corruption and very often reporters used bribery or corruption interchangeably and lack of proper labeling made it difficult to categorize them into specific grouping.
   
2. Missing of Geographical Location: Some news stories did not specify the place where the event had taken place actually. The most missing geographical unit was upazila name. In a number instance the name of upazila had been missing.
   
3. Missing of Official Level of the Actor: At times the official level of the person who committed the corruption was not specified clearly. If the actor is a government official he must be one of the following categories---- (a) Higher official (b) First class official (c) Second class official (d) Third class official (e) Fourth class official. But as it was not specified in some stories. we submissively used the word "unknown" for those cases.
   
4. Missing of Time of Occurrence: Lack of mentioning the date or time of occurrence was another limitation of the study. So the same word "unknown" was used for a number of cases.
   
5. Missing of Victim: In Some cases the victim of the case was not specified. We also used the word "unknown" for these types of cases.
   
6. Missing of Amount Loss: For a number of cases the amount of loss was not stated. The report just stated " a lot of money……" or something like that. So we were compelled to use the label "unknown".
   
7. Lack of Follow Up: Often a piece of news was not followed up. A follow-up might have helped us to strengthen our work giving additional information.
   
8. Lack of Exposure: Through the process of regular newspaper monitoring it came to our notice that some types of systematic corruption are not published in the newspapers. For example, it is common knowledge that huge corruption is prevailed in taxation, but number of reported cases on this department was not that significant.
   
9. Unavoidable Constraints: This was TIB's first News Scan Database Report. Due to lack of manpower and certain unavoidable circumstances we are not 100% sure that we could have been able to collect all the corruption reports published in the newspapers.

2.4 Accuracy of the News and Corroboration:

It is sometimes alleged by the governmental officials and political leaders that some dishonest journalists provide news coverage sitting in the press clubs and thus alluding to the fact that the news published in the newspaper are incorrect. For this reason, TIB Database Team tried to determine the validity of the allegations. In order to do so we took 5% (33 cases) out of 661 cases that was reported in the first three months. Simple random sampling technique was used to do this.

TIB developed a procedure for corroboration for this study. Database Team Members used three separate questionnaires for corroboration; one was for the official reported to be corrupt, another for reporter/correspondent and the rest for concerned authority. The criteria for justification procedure were:

1. If the news was not published as headline in two dailies.
2. If the news was published at least in three dailies.
3. If an investigative committee was formed to investigate the story by the order of Prime Minister/Concerned Ministry.

Among the sample numbers only one of the sampled stories needed no corroboration since it was published as headline news in all of the newspapers under study. TIB Database Team corroborated the rest 32 stories visiting the spot of 23 districts.

Through corroboration we found that all the sample cases were 100% accurate. So we concluded that there were no effects of yellow journalism in the cases we gathered in our News Scan Database.

Case Studies of Corroboration:

As for the purpose of clarity two case studies have been presented bellow:

Case Study 1:

Case description: A lot of money was misappropriated jointly by the officials of BRDB and BADC of Brahmanbaria from the after flood rehabilitation program.

Name of the Newspaper: We collected information for our database from the daily Sangbad (06/03/2000). The news was also published in the daily Jugantor dated 12/03/2000.

Comments of the Correspondent: TIB Database Team talked to the correspondent of the daily Sangbad on 22/07/2000. Mr. Md. Sadequr Rahman, the correspondent submitted some papers related to the order of investigation by Bangladesh Rural Development Board. These papers prove the authenticity of the news. It was also known from the correspondent that the news was published in 8 national dailies and 2 local newspapers. He commented that the news was 100% true.

Query to the Corrupt: It was found from the papers submitted by the correspondent that 4 officials were involved with this. TIB Database Team tried to talk with them, but failed because 3 of the officials were transferred and the rest was found absent from the office.

Query to the Official of the Concerned Department: We talked to the Deputy Secretary of BRDB, Brahmanbaria who admitted the case was little bit true.

Case Study 2:

Case Description: The head masters and dealers of various schools misappropriated a lot of food grain from ‘Food for Education Program’ showing some fake cards in different schools of Kishoreganj (Nilphamari).

Name of the Newspaper: The news was published in the daily Sangbad (13/02/2000).

Comments of the Correspondent: Mr. Saifullah Munna, Nilphamari Correspondent of the daily Sangbad firmly told that the news was 100% true. He also informed that students did not get actual amount of allocation from the ‘Food for Education Program’ or sometimes cash money from the concerned authority. The Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Kishoreganj informed us that an investigative committee was formed to find out the irregularities in ‘Food for Education Program’.

Findings from the Corrupt: One of the alleged was absent and the other was unwilling to meet with our team. So we were unable to talk with any one of them.

Comments of the Official of the Concerned Department: The Upazila Education Officer informed us that he did not receive any allegation about the irregularities in ‘Food for Education Program’.

Chapter Three: The Corruption Menace

3.1 Introduction

The sampling technique for News Scan Database Team was to collect stories from nine national dailies over six-month period and develop its data bank. Newspapers are a great source of current information and every day numerous corruption-related reports are getting published in the newspapers. Some newspapers focus on Police, some on Forest Department and some on Local Government. Scanning nine dailies for six months (January-June 2000) TIB News Scan Database Team gathered one thousand three hundred and forty five corruption cases i.e. more than 224 cases in each month or about 51 cases in each week.

3.2 Corruption by Sector/Department/Directorate:

During the time of going through the news coverage on corruption on thirty-seven sectors/departments/directorates, TIB News Scan Database Team found corruption cases against the officials from thirty-six of them. Among these, Law Enforcement Agency, which included police, BDR and Ansar & VDP, were found to be the most corrupt service sector (20.67%). The reported number of cases against this sector was 278.

Table 3.1: Distribution of Corruption by Sector/Department/Directorate

The second most corruption reports were published on Local Government sector. It was slightly more than half (11.67%) of the Law Enforcement Agency. Education sector was identified as the third corrupt sector with 10.93% of the total reported cases. The next highest reported numbers of cases were found in Health sector (7.81%) which is three percent lower than Education sector and about three times lower than the Law Enforcement agency. 4.46 % cases were reported on both Forest & Environment and Direct & Indirect Taxation while Finance sector comprises 4.31 %. Communication service sector (3.79%) and Water Resource (3.49%) also represented significant number of cases. Another essential service sector is Post and Telecommunication where reported number cases were 40, which is 2.97 % of the total reported number of corruption cases. Corruption was also identified widespread in both Power Supply Sector (2.90 %) and Land Administration (2.38 %).

Table 3.1 also shows that the first four sectors represent half of the total reported cases (51.08%). The next 8 sectors represent about 30% of the reported cases. Bureau of Anti-corruption was the only department against which we found no reported cases.

Except public service delivery system, we also gathered corruption cases against political parties, different private service organizations (excluding NGOs) and NGOs. Table 3.1 shows that the reported number of cases against these three sectors was 21, 63 and 21 respectively.

3.3 Corruption in Law Enforcement Agency

During the study period Law Enforcement Agencies (Police, BDR, Ansar & VDP) was found to be the most corrupt service sector. In recent years corruption in police department is one of the most talked topics in Bangladesh. Several reports (WB 2000, US Human Rights Report 2000) revealed that corruption is widespread in police service in Bangladesh. In 1997, TIB in its ‘Survey on Corruption in Bangladesh’ also found police service as one of the most corrupt sectors.

Total number of reported cases against Law Enforcement Agencies was 278, out of which 254 cases were against police department only. This includes DB police, Metropolitan police, Thana/Upazila police, traffic police and district police line. Against BDR, the border petrol force the reported number of cases was 18 while it was 6 for Ansar & VDP. Table 3.2 shows the breakdown of corruption in Law Enforcement Agency by department and type of corruption.

Table 3.2: Corruption in Law Enforcement Agencies

Abuse of power was widespread in police department. About half of the reported cases (123) that were published are related to abuse of power. Analysis reveals that discretionary power granted under Act 54 have been the source of abuse of power for this department. Reported bribery cases (51) were much lower than abuse of power and refusal to provide services/perform duties (46) were slightly lower than that of reported bribery cases. Extortion was also found prevalent in police. This type of allegation was found slightly more than half of bribery. Misuse of resources (3) was found one-ninth of reported extortion cases. Embezzlement, fraud and nepotism were reported to be very low (1) whereas no case was reported on influence peddling in police service. In terms of severity of this corruption crime, police department is involved in highest form of corruption practices, which is abuse of power.

In BDR, bribery (11) was monitored as the most widespread type of corruption. Misuse of resources (3) was found one-ninth of reported extortion cases. Embezzlement, fraud and nepotism were reported to be very low (1) whereas no case was reported on influence peddling in police service.

3.4 Corruption in Local Government

At Local Government level, Union Parishad unit has 48 reported cases of corruption, which is the highest among other Local Government organizations. District Parishad and Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) follow Union Parishad where reported cases were 23. There were 21 reported cases of corruption at Thana Parishad level. Both City Corporation and Pourashava have 11 reported cases.

Most common type of corruption is Embezzlement and Union Parishad has 37 cases related to this kind of corruption. Unlike Law Enforcement Agency where abuse of power is the most predominant form of corruption, at the local level, officials are using their office for misappropriating public resources. Most of the misappropriation took place under the VGD and VGF program where chairman and members of the Union Parishard misused money, wheat, rice and other allocated public resources. Some of those cases show that Union Parishad in collusion with other local government organizations like LGED misdirected public funds. For example, wheat and rice were misappropriated under ‘Food for Work’ program to reconstruct a local embankment. Government is looking into various reform measures for local government units and more checks and control needs to be in place to stop this kind of practices. Close scrutiny is also needed in those areas where misappropriation is taking place.

Table 3.3: Corruption in Local Government Service

3.5 Corruption in Education

Education is one of the largest and important public service providers in Bangladesh. The National Plan of Action (NPA) 1990 in its overview stated that widespread lack of basic education was the Achilles hell of the society and economy of Bangladesh. Millions of dollars have already been pumped in this sector but the situation is far from reaching a satisfactory level.

Table 3.4: Corruption in Education

In all department/directorate of education sector TIB Database Team monitored 147 cases published in 9 dailies during study period. Embezzlement was recorded as highest (47) reported cases, followed by abuse of power (32). Refusal to provide services (17), bribery and fraud (14) were also significant in education sector. Only one case was found on nepotism and no case was found on influence peddling in this sector.

Table 3.4 shows that secondary schools were identified as the worst of all services in education sector. The total number of reported cases in secondary schools were 27 and most cases were identified as embezzlement (11), followed by abuse of power (6) and bribery (5). Education Board was also seemed as a worse service department. Twenty-four allegations were monitored against the colleges and most of them were identified as extortion (10).

It is also evident from the table that about half of the cases were reported as abuse of power in six education boards. Embezzlement (6) was also widespread among the boards. In ‘Food for Education’ most of the reported cases were identified as embezzlement (9) and in primary school half of the cases (7) were belonged to this type. The rest of the cases were reported against Education Ministry (12), Education offices (11) and University (11) while only 8 cases were reported related to madrasha.

3.6 Corruption in Health

Health is the another important public service sector and its services for developing country like Bangladesh cannot be over emphasized. The government has fixed a target to achieve ‘health for all’ by the year 2000 and providing lot of resources in this sector.

Table 3.5: Corruption in Health Sector

TIB research team identified 105 reported cases of corruption in the health sector and embezzlement and refusal to provide services is the most common form of corruption practices. There were 35 reported cases of corruption against Health Complexes located in districts and Upazilas and out of which 16 cases were reported for refusal to provide services. Case study shows that most of the health officials and doctors are absent from their work places and often doctors are involved in private practices. Embezzlement is taking place mostly in the Civil Surgeon Office, where officials are misappropriating money for costly medical equipment and machinery. Lack of inspection and absence of proper regulatory bodies causing misuse of resources also. There are lots of shops selling life saving drugs without proper license and hotels and restaurants are serving low quality food because of violation in inspection procedure or no inspection.

3.7 Corruption in Forest and Environment

Table 3.6 shows the distribution of reported corruption cases on Forest and Environment.

During our study period fifty-nine cases were reported about forest department. Officials and employees of Forest Department permitted the wood smugglers to cut forest trees from the forests. Sometimes cutting and selling of trees by the officials themselves were reported. Timber traders with direct cooperation of forest officials are cutting huge quantity of wood and poachers are killing animals through bribery and other illegal means. The highest number of cases about Forest Department was embezzlement (20) that was one-third of the total reported cases on this sector. The number of cases related to abuse of power was 14 followed by 12 cases of bribery.

Table 3.6: Distribution of Reported Cases in Forest & Environment

3.8 Corruption in Direct and Indirect Taxation

Taxation is the largest source of revenue for the government of Bangladesh. For this research direct and indirect taxation department was consisted of Customs, Revenue, VAT and taxation administration.

There were 60 reported case of corruption in this sector during six-month data collection through news scan in nine dallies. Abuse of power and bribery were most reported cases in customs department. Seventeen cases were reported related to abuse of power whereas the number of reported cases on bribery was 15. Tax collectors are collecting excess tax violating government rules or releasing importers of illegal goods through bribery or misappropriating money that was collected as taxes.

Table 3.7: Corruption in Direct and Indirect Taxation

Five cases were reported on extortion, embezzlement and fraud each while three cases were found related to refusal to provide services/perform duties. On the other hand, no cases were reported in customs department on misuse of resources, nepotism and influences peddling.

3.9 Corruption in Finance

Fraud, embezzlement and abuse of power are the most common form of corruption practices in the financial sector and most of those reported cases are occurring in the nationalized banks. During the research period, there were 56 reported cases on corruption of which 21 cases related to Fraud, 19 cases on embezzlement and 14 cases of abuse of power. There were 2 cases reported on abuse of power in Investment Company. Some examples of corruption in this sector are a group of bank officials from a nationalized bank submitted false papers to draw agricultural loan for the farmers or in another case a farmer got agricultural loan less than the sanctioned amount. Some officials were involved in forging LC or selling dollars in the black market. GM and other high bank officials were found involved in different kinds of irregularities by providing loans to their chosen firms and industries.

Table 3.8: Corruption in Finance Sector

3.10 Corruption in Communication Sector

There were 49 reported cases of corruption in the transport and communication sector where abuse of power had been the dominant form of corruption practices. There were 18 cases on abuse of power of which 13 cases were reported in Bangladesh Railway department.

Table 3.9: Corruption in Communication Sector

In fact there were total 31 cases reported against Bangladesh Railway followed by 13 cases in Roads and Highways and 5 cases for BRTA. There were 11 cases of embezzlement and 7 cases of refusal to provide services.

Some examples of corruption in Communication sector are officials in Roads and Highways misappropriating lot of money through construction works, Tender work given through nepotism without bidding. There were reported cases on issuing illegal licenses, fitness certificates, route permits, Blue books by BRTA office.

3.11 Corruption in Water Resources sector

Water Resources sector consisted of WDB, Irrigation, Water Resource Ministry and WAPDA and most reported cases of corruption were published for Water Development Board (WDB). There were total of 46 reported cases of which 21 cases related to embezzlement, 10 cases of misuse of resources and 6 cases of abuse of power. There were some cases relating to bribery (3) and refusal to provide services (4).

There were reported cases of embezzlement and abuse of power for WDB authority when some of their officials by passed Tender process and selected constructors by taking bribes. Project directors, engineers and other officials misappropriated public funds in various construction projects. There were reported cases of corruption for Water Resource Ministry and the minister misappropriated public funds for personal use.

Table 3.10: Corruption in Water Resource Sector

3.12 Corruption in Post & Telecommunication Sector

There were 40 reported cases of corruption in Post & Telecommunication sector and most of the corruption cases are related to abuse of power (11) followed by embezzlement (8) and bribery (7). There were some cases of refusal to provide services (5) and fraud (4) also. Accusations are more common in BTTB where BTTB officials were found to harass subscribers by providing false bills and taking bribes to reduce phone bills or extorting extra money by disconnecting and reconnecting telephone lines. Refusal to provide services is more common type of corrupt practices in Post Office where mails and other documents are not delivered on time.

Table 3.11: Corruption in Post & Telecommunication Service

3.13 Corruption in Power Service Sector

Power Service Sector consisted of PDB, DESA, PBS and REB and reported cases during the research period were 39. Highest number of cases were reported for PDB (23) followed by DESA (10), PBS (5) and REB (1). Most of the cases were related to abuse of power (15) then 7 cases for embezzlement, 5 cases of bribery, 4 cases of fraud and 4 cases of misuse of resources.

PDB official and engineers are involved in various irregularities like taking bribes from public for reduced bills, 60 crore taka were embezzled by showing as system loss, unauthorized and illegal connections are being provided.

Table 3.12: Corruption in Power Service Sector

3.14 Corruption in Land Administration

During the news scan survey period there were 32 reported case of corruption in Land Administration and out of 37 directorate/sector surveyed this administration is the 13^th corrupt department. Most of the cases were reported for bribery (12), abuse of power (7), extortion (5). There were some cases of fraud, embezzlement and refusal to provide services.

Table 3.13: Corruption in Land Administration

3.15 Corruption by Administrative Upazila/Thana

There are 496 upazilas/thanas in Bangladesh (BBS Statistical Pocket Book 98). TIB Data Base Team looked at the corruption-reports about all these thanas/upazilas. It was reported that all of the upazilas/thanas except 16 had incidence of corruption.

Table 3.7 shows that out of 496 Thanas, the highest number of report was found in Uttara thana (25) in Dhaka district which is 1.86% of total reported cases. Second highest corruption cases were reported for Ramna Thana of Dhaka district. According to news report there were 16 cases of corruption involving officials and authorities of Ramna Thana. Sharsha Thana of Jeshore districts had 13 cases, Sherpur Thana of Bogra district had 12, Barisal Comilla and Srimangal Sadar Thana had 11 reported cases. This has been observed that most of the cases of corruption occurred in larger areas and Thanas located in the bordering districts.

Table 3.14: Corruption in Upazila/Thana Administration

N.B. Upazila/thana that had 5 or less number of reported cases is not included in the table. Furthermore, the reported cases that were prevalent throughout the district were not included in any thana/upazila.

On the other hand no cases were found in Aditmari, Atgharia, Akkelpur, Bagatipara, Barhatta, Barkal, Beani Bazar, Daulatpur, Fenchuganj, Harirampur, Hossainpur, Kumarkhali, Manpur, Rampal, Saturia and Sullah.

3.16 Corruption in by Administrative District

TIB News Scan Database Team found corruption reports in all 64 districts in Bangladesh and the number of reported cases is the total corruption cases for all directorate/sector in that particular district. The highest number of case (221) was reported against the officials/employees of Dhaka district. The observed number of cases in Chittagong was second highest with 78 reported cases.

Table 3.15: Corruption by Administrative District

Number of cases in Patuakhali (48), Jessore (43), Moulavi Bazar (42) varied between 40-50 while the reported cases were found 36,35, 32, 30 and 30 in Comilla, Mymensingh, Sherpur, Barisal and Jhenaidah respectively. Sixteen districts were found to have reported-cases 20 to 29, while twenty-one districts found 10 to 19 each. Three cases were monitored that covered the whole country and 2 were reported covering regionally.

3.17 Level of the Official

Individually, first class officials were found to be more corrupt. The number of reported cases against them was 399. The second highest number of cases were found against second-class officials (219), while the number of monitored reported cases against both third and fourth class officials was less than 50.

Table 3.16: Number of Reported Cases by Level of Official

N.B. Higher Official = Joint Secretary and Higher.

Cases reported against higher officials were 94, while elected officials 110.

3.18 Reported Cases by Newspaper

Among nine dailies we took the highest number of cases (272) from the daily Jugantor. The next highest number was 228 that was taken from the daily Janakantha, followed by Sangbad (212),

Table 3.17: Number of Reported Cases by Newspaper

Ittefaq (195), Bhorer Kagoj (179), Prothom Alo (151), Observer (65), Star (25) and Financial Express (18). Actually the number of cases selected was based on information i.e. the paper cutting/news that gave us more information was selected (for details-see 2.2.4).

Chapter Four: Impacts of Corruption and Action Taken

4.1 Victims of Corruption

Not only the government and citizens but also various professional groups of the society were found detrimental in reported corruption cases published in the newspapers during the first six months of the year. Table 3.16 shows the distribution of victims of corruption in reported cases.

Table 4.1: Victims of Corruption

It is evident from the table that the government was the most incurring class. About 500 cases were reported on government. The second most incurring class was the citizens which represents more than 30 % of all the reported cases. Students, businessmen, government officials, farmers, teachers and some other professionals from different class were found suffering in the reported cases.

4.2 Effects of Corruption

The effects of all reported-cases could not be measured in monetary terms. Some cases reflected the damage on the environment, some were found violate human rights or citizens rights, while some other cases were related to physical harassment. Due to lack of information, TIB database Team could not able to measure the loss of amount for a number of cases.

Table 4.2: Effects of Reported Corruption Cases

During our study period the total amount of loss for the government from the reported 211 cases amounted TK. 11534.98 crore. This did not include the loss of the citizens who had to pay bribe to the corrupt officials (e.g. businessmen had to pay bribes to the police officials to carry on their business smoothly). Furthermore, misappropriation of food grain by UP Chairmen and members was not converted into cash, which was estimated to be 1000 metric tons.

4.3 Financial Loss in Reported Cases

During our study period 655 reported cases were related to financial loss. Among these 211 cases were reported financial loss on government sectors which amounted to Tk.11534.98 crore.

Table 4.3: Financial Loss by Sector

The government was most incurred from education sector. From this sector the financial loss of the government was Tk. 2305.48 crore. By the officials of different departments of the local government the total reported financial loss was amounted Tk. 2111.23 crore. The monetary loss of the government from Health, Water Resources and Finance was Tk. 2051.48, 1978.83 and 993.25 crore respectively.

The World Bank in its report said that in the absence of corruption Bangladesh could achieve some 2-3 percentage of GDP (WB 2000). In 1997-98 the total GDP of the country was Tk.1548.33 billion which is equivalent to US $ 28.67 billion. On the other hand the financial loss in reported cases was amounted US $ 2.14 billion that is 7.46% of the GDP.

4.5 Action Taken Against Reported Cases

Table 3.10 shows the type of action taken and the name of the authority who took the action against the reported cases. Action was taken against only 453 cases out of one thousand three hundred and forty five reported cases. The role of the concerned department was found to be more frequent than Bureau of Anti- Corruption (BAC). The BAC dealt with only 116 cases. They were investigating 23 cases and filed case on 86 cases. The number of giving charge sheet (5) by BAC was reported to be very low.

Table 4.5: Action Taken Against Reported Cases

N.B. Charge sheeted by BAC and Convicted by court.

The concerned ministry dealt with only 20 cases, while the concerned department dealt with 188 cases. They suspended (permanently & temporarily) 49 persons for conducting corruption, was investigating 63 cases and given charge sheet against 28 reported cases. Police also dealt with 46 reported cases.

Chapter Five: A Comparative Analysis with 1997 News Scan Database

5.1 Introduction

In 1997 Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) conducted a newspaper survey on corruption. The number of newspaper included in that time was three. In this chapter we tried to put a comparative analysis between the findings in 1997 and 2000.

5.2 Comparative Analysis

In 1997 (January-June) the total number of reported cases on Law Enforcement Agency was 180 but in 2000 (January-June) the number was found 278.

Table 5.1: Comparison of News Scan Database Repot Between 1997 and 2000

In all sectors except shipping the number of reported cases was found high in the report of 2000. The number was found same (15) in shipping in both of the year.

In 1997 the total number of reported cases was 490, but in 2000 the number was 1345.

Chapter Six: Conclusion

6.1 Introduction

As said earlier the information/data used in this report were totally collected from newspapers. People often do not remember the variety of different news published in the newspapers. Working as watchdog, TIB (News Scan Database Team) monitored the news, added value to the news published by compiling them over a given period of subsequently analyzed them. Through the compilation of we tried to

• measure the pervasiveness of corruption;
• identify the level of the corrupt officials;
• define the loss of government from the reported cases;
• identify the most corruption-prone area (thana & district) of Bangladesh;
• identify the role of BAC and other government agencies in curbing corruption;
• inform the government and the people of the extent of corruption in various government departments.

6.2 Appeals to the Government

The World Bank in its report (WB 2000) said that in the absence of widespread corruption the country could have achieved a double per-capita income. By gathering information from these cases, we determined the loss of the government to be Tk.11,534.98 crore which might help the country to increase per-capita income. The Jatiya Sangshad on 19 January 2000 asserted that a corruption-free administration could help the political government to lead the country to the path of peace, progress and development. In this perspective the government should take the following steps e.g.

• To intensify the activities of the Bureau of Anti-Corruption;
• To develop a system to monitor the news coverage on corruption and take necessary action;
• To develop accountability and transparency in every sphere of work of an official;
• To lessen the discretionary power of the government officials.

6.3 Expectation to the Citizens

Ordinary people in Bangladesh are forced to pay bribe in order to get public services because they are ignorant of their rights and obligations. On the other hand some people pay bribes for violating rules in their favour. In this perspective, we urge the general people

• not to pay bribes;
• inform the concerned authority of the irregularities of officials/employees;
• protest against irregularities done by the officials/employees;

6.4 Request to the Journalists

We have a number of requests to the journalists. Due to lack of information we were compelled to use the word "unknown" in some of the fields of some cases. The missing information were:

• date/time of occurrence
• type of corruption
• name of the thana/upazila
• type of actor (govt/autonomous/private/elected official)
• level of the corrupt official
• is there any transaction/no transactions
• victim of the case
• loss of amount (if any)
• action taken or not
• who takes action
• follow up of the news and
• comments of concerned authority.

To make our report richer, we need the above information. So we request the journalists to keep the above points in mind during the time of writing a report.