TIB claims Bangladeshis pay Tk 88.21 billion in bribes annually for services

Bangladeshis have to pay over Tk 88.21 billion annually in bribes to get services related to at least 16 sectors, including health, education, security, power, gas, passport, judiciary, a study finds.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 29 June 2016, 03:42 PM
Updated : 29 June 2016, 03:42 PM

Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) published the finds in a report, ‘Corruption in Service Sector: National Household Survey 2015’, in Dhaka on Wednesday.
 
The corruption watchdog found 67.8 percent of 15,206 households it surveyed from November 2014 to October 2015 to be victims of corruption while 58.1 percent paid bribes.
 

A Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) report in 2011 said the number of households in Bangladesh was 31.8 million.
TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said the estimated amount of bribes paid for services in 2015 amounts to 3.7 percent of the budget for 2014-2015 fiscal year and 0.6 percent of the GDP.
He said the scenario has got worse than the last such survey in 2012.
The number of victims of corruption rose by 1 percent while the number of those who had to pay bribes increased by 6 percent in these times, the TIB executive director said.
According to him, the survey found passport service was found the most corrupt sector.
Security agencies were the second most corrupt sector.
Iftekharuzzaman said corruption could not be stopped due to the lack of political will coupled with the trend to harbour corruption.
He proposed to bring accountability and transparency to all sectors by stopping political influence in appointments, transfers and promotions.
TIB Trustee Board Chairperson Sultana Kamal was also present at the release of the survey finds.