Wednesday, December 10 2014

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/12/10/70191
VOL 22 NO 31 REGD NO DA 1589 | Dhaka, Wednesday, December 10 2014

Devising ways to curb corruption

M S Siddiqui

The issues of corruption and good governance have evoked concerns in different quarters in
Bangladesh. Corruption is widespread in many developing countries and has been identified as a
national problem everywhere. The media have attracted lots of attention over corruption in
general. Newspapers and different civil society groups have been playing a vital role in
highlighting the need for combating corruption.
A recent purported statement that 'speed money is not a bribe' has triggered a debate among the
citizens. The speed money or bribe in fact is mother of all other forms of corruption. Corruption
is a complex term which is not easy to define in one sentence. Experts define corruption from
different perspectives and there is no general standard to measure it.
Corruption is mostly related to misuse of public positions. It is identified as a behavioural
practice of certain people. Two parties are usually involved in most cases of corruption-- one,
who seeks help from the other holding the position giving the latter 'something' in return.
Corruption is any activity motivated by interest, violating the binding rules of distribution, the
application of which is within one's responsibility. Rules of distribution refer not only to the
rules of the law, but also to norms recognised as binding by the society and/or the system's
official norms and operation codes. Also corrupt are those activities regarded by the society as
illegitimate or seen by the power elite as contradictory to the logic of the system.
Corruption is a behaviour that leads to private gain of a few people. In most cases, those people
are linked to each other. They may be from the same family, supporters from the same political
party or members of the same business syndicate.
Corruption is intentional mis-performance or neglect of a recognised duty, or unwarranted
exercise of power with the motive of gaining some advantages which are more or less directly
personal.
Experts define corruption from different perspectives. One expert has given the following three
types of definition:
* Public office-centred definition which involves a deviation from legal and public duty norms
for private benefit whether in the form of pecuniary, status and influence gains;

* Market-centred definition viewing corruption as a maximising activity in which officials

manipulate pecuniary gains according to supply and demand in the market place of their official
domains;
* Public interest-centred definition pointing to betrayal of public interest by preferring particular
or common interest.
In public office-centred corruption, a government official uses his public position and facilities
and gets private gain. He mainly does it for pecuniary, status and influence gains. In marketcentred corruption, a public official manipulates the government policies in the market-related
factors like demand, supply and price policies to get pecuniary gains.
In public interest-centred corruption, a government official, a ruling party politician or any
person uses his power and influence to get particular or common interest by way of betraying
public interest.
Apart from conventional concept of corruption, some experts identify corruption in different
ways.
The public office-centred definition covers all of types of corruption occurring in public offices
(i.e. government). The bureaucracy in Bangladesh is very active and strong. So there is a greater
chance of public office-centred corruption.
The market-centred definition covers all aspects of corruption occurring in the market sector
(i.e., business, trade and economic sector). In a globalised world, trade has increased among
countries. Market-related activities have increased and opportunities for corruption created.
Business, trade and market-related activities have increased in Bangladesh and corruption is
there in this sector as well. Market-centred definition of corruption covers all these marketrelated irregularities by a government official.
The public-interest centred definition covers all aspects of corruption occurring in any sector.
This highlights instances that promote self-interest over the interests of the people and
community (e.g. this could include either government or private or NGO sectors): private sector
is expanding after introduction of structural adjustment programme. NGO activities are
widespread as well in Bangladesh. All forms of corruption occurring in these sectors can be
identified by the public interest-centred graft.
It is clear that any form of corruption occurring in Bangladesh can be recognised by these three
types of definition. It is essential to categorise all sorts of corruption in Bangladesh to identify its
causes and find out strategies for its eradication.
Corruption takes place in different forms. There is no common form of corruption and it varies
from place to place. What is considered as corruption in one society may not be the same in
another in the same way. The most commonly recognised forms of corruption are treason,
subversion, illegal foreign transactions and smuggling. It includes privatisation of public funds,

larceny and stealing, forgery and embezzlement, skimming, misuse of funds, abuse of power,
intimidation, torture, undeserved pardons and remission.
An excessive dependence on bureaucracy is one of the main reasons for corruption. Especially
developing countries have more opportunities to be corrupt than the developed ones. Where
countries are more dependent on bureaucrats, there are more scopes for corruption. More
dependency on bureaucracy means less transparency. Bureaucrats are not directly accountable to
the public for their activities.
Corruption exists in every sector of the country. Some people are getting rich overnight and they
are transferring money to other countries illegally. Lack of proper money laundering law makes
it easy for corrupt people to transfer their illegal income outside the country. Rest of the money
is being used in non-productive sectors.
Corruption minimises the scope of investing money in productive sectors. If we cannot invest in
productive sectors, it will not be possible to improve the economic condition of people in
Bangladesh.
Corruption also reduces the capacity of the poor to achieve the desired standard of living. It
discourages honest people to be engaged in public activities because there is no proper reward
for good practices and honesty.
There are only a few high-profile cases where the corrupt people get punished and very rarely
ruling political party activists get punished for corruption.
The size of the government is an important factor in this regard. A weak private sector is nor
capable of exerting pressure on the government to establish accountable and transparent
procedures and institutions. The World Bank always emphasises on reforming the public sector
by, among others, cutting the size of the government.
Dependency on foreign aid also creates opportunities for countries to be corrupt. When huge
amounts of aid are used in a country, there are immense development works. More development
works mean involvement of a lot of people in those activities.
Aid dependence can potentially undermine institutional quality by weakening accountability,
encouraging rent seeking and corruption, fomenting conflict over control of aid funds. An aiddependent country's government has less accountability to its own people because the money
does not belong to the people. In most of the developing countries, people pay less tax since
most of the development works are done with aid money. In that case, they worry less about
corruption as it is not their money.
Many countries improved their situation by implementing new laws where a strong political will
was the main factor behind achieving effective reforms. It essentially requires strong democracy
to change this situation. The weak political leadership and ill-thought-out decisions have led the
country to a situation where massive reforms are needed to improve the situation.

The writer is a legal economist.

shah@banglachemical.com