By Mizan Rahman/Dhaka
Bangladesh’s position in the Corruption Perception Index 2012 of Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) has been downgraded by 24 places to 144th from the last year’s 120th position.
According to TI, Bangladesh has scored 26 in a scale of 0-100 and has ranked 144th from the top.
“Questionable role or stance of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on some high-profile cases and government attempt to curtail independence and effectiveness of ACC, large-scale withdrawal of criminal and corruption cases under political consideration, weakening of institutional capacity to control corruption are the factors behind the slip in the index,” executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Ifekharuzzaman said while announcing the new TI report at a press conference in Dhaka yesterday.
He also said: “It seems that many of ACC’s actions reflect government desire.”
Describing corruption as a key challenge for Bangladesh, he said, the possible factors behind the corruption are Padma multipurpose bridge project, railway scam, stock market, hallmark and destiny.
Weakened parliament due to boycott, conflict of interest, politicised administration and law enforcement, continued provision of whitening black money and weakened public procurement rules were also accountable for such
corruption index, he added.
Among seven South Asian countries the position of Bangladesh is sixth from top and second from the bottom. From the bottom of the list Bangladesh’s position is 13th like the previous year’s.
Except for Bhutan, all South Asian countries including Bangladesh have received much lower than the global average of 43.
Bangladesh is one of the 31 countries, which have worsened their score compared to 2011, and one of the 57 countries who have fallen in rank from top.
The report was released simultaneously across the globe yesterday.
About curbing corruption, Ifekharuzzaman suggested fulfilment of anti-corruption election pledges without fear or fervour, strengthening of institutional and policy framework including parliament, strengthening of ACC, enforcement of right to information and culture of disclosure, transparency in
procurement.
According to the global index, no country scored 100% while 124 countries out of 176 (two-thirds) scored below 50 and 67 countries scored less than average of 43.
Many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries like Germany, Belgium, UK, USA, Japan, France, Austria, Spain, Italy have scored less than 80.
TIB chairman Sultana Kamal and former TIB chairman Hafiz Uddin Khan were also present in the programme.