Police most corrupt institution
TI report on 5 SA countries

The Independent, 18 December 2002

Transparency International (TI) has termed police as the most corrupted public institution in five South Asian countries including Bangladesh.

The TI report on corruption in seven key public sectors in five South Asian countries was simultaneously released from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and from the TI Secretariat in Berlin, Germany, yesterday.

After police and judiciary, corruption dominated in land administration and taxation in all five South Asian countries except in Pakistan where land administration was the second most corrupt institution and it was followed by the taxation department.

TI Bangladesh said that it (TI) conducted its survey "Corruption in South Asia" on different households, users of the services, to unveil corruption in seven major public institutions in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal in a period from November 2001 to May 2002 and came up with the findings that people in these countries had to pay bribes to get public services and bribes caused a heavy financial burden on South Asian households.

The other sectors surveyed by TI are healthcare, education and power.TI, in its report, accentuated that the dearth of accountability as well as transparency and monopoly of power had made these key public sectors as breeding grounds of corruption and it (TI) underlined the need for strengthening accountability and monitoring system to control "the phenomenon of endemic corruption that now afflicts large section of population".

In Bangladesh 84 per cent of respondents reported corruption in police department and in 96 per cent of these cases, bribes were paid for a release after arrest under false pretext.
About 75 per cent users of court system (lower judiciary) reported incidents of corruption and court officials were identified as the major facilitator of corruption and in most cases bribes were demanded directly.

In the land administration surveyors, Tehsildars and revenue officials were quoted as major facilitators of corruption.
In the health sectors, doctors were identified as major facilitators of corruption and more than 60 per cent respondents said that the bribes were demanded directly. The TI survey found that the people had to pay bribes for seeking admission or getting beds or medicines in government hospitals.

More than 87 per cent of the victims of corruption had identified teachers as the major facilitators and irregular admission process as the major form of corruption in the education system.
The TI survey found that more than one-third of the total users of the public power utility reported irregularities in accessing the service and the percentage was significantly higher in rural areas (45 per cent) than in urban areas (23 per cent). Meter readers and departmental officers were identified as major facilitators of corruption.

Almost 80 per cent of the victims of corruption cited extortion as the main form of graft in the power sector, TI report said.

Staff Reporter

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