Reduce Corruption - A Different Measure Can Be Taken in Bangladesh
Dr. Touhid Md. Faisal Kamal
February 24, 2007
This was very normal to resign from their post (The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commissioners) the stage seemed set for re-constituting the Anti-Corruption Commission with more power and authority in order to make it really effective and functional to serve the purposefor the resistance of Corruptions in Bangladesh.
There is no denying the fact that widespread and pervasive corruption in government and public administration is now the number one problem of the country and the new caretaker government headed by Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed has already announced to undertake immediate appropriate measures to combat corruption.
In governance terms, corruption threatens democratic public institutions by permitting the influence of improper interest on the use of public resources and power, and by undermining the confidence of citizens in the legitimate activities of the state. In a developing country like Bangladesh where administrative norms and systems have not yet been fully in place, most effective action against corruption is to raise the awareness of all officers and staff in public service increasing the level of control, that is by having matters that would lend themselves to corruption processed by more than one official, or through increased vigilance on the part of superiors.
Corruption is a world wide phenomenon and it has got many forms, colours and dimensions and combating corruption totally is simply not possible anywhere in the world not to speak of a country like Bangladesh where the resources are limited but people's demands are innumerable.
Bribery, forgery, nepotism, ransom-taking and rent-seeking, tax evasion through collaboration with tax collectors, graft in government purchases, wrong auditing, false bidding etc are some of the forms of corruption we very often have to confront with in government offices.
The Code of conduct
To combat corruption a generally applicable code of conduct may be made available to the heads of organisations and other superiors. It will help them considerably to respond adequately to incidents and practices where the suspicion of corruption exists.
Particular emphasis should be there on a consistent supervisory control. Special training programmes for combating corrupt practices may be arranged for senior officials and heads of organisations specially to acquaint with ways of exercising control and supervisory functions. Concrete guidance on anti-corruption measures should be available to them so that they can respond in a competent way in an individual case.
Guidance and training for public officials especially at senior levels on codes of conduct, ethics and awareness may be considered as essential elements of service. These performances should primarily focus on the legitimate activities of civil servants that can be improved by further training minimising the potential of illegitimate administrative activities.
The efforts should be planned specifically to promote the efficiency of the application of laws. Also of fundamental importance is the civil servants' code of ethics, which is normally prepared on the basis of an authorisation by law. This is an undertaking in which representatives of all fields -- trade, commerce, industry, law enforcement agencies, tax collecting agency, judiciary etc also take part providing expert and professional input.
For a country like Bangladesh, the main remedial measure against further spread of corruption should be to employ the power of modern information technology to reduce civil servants' discretionary power and thereby make government more transparent and accountable. The more discretion government employees have and the less visible their actions are, the greater is the potential for abuse and corruption.
There is an incredibly wide range of possible applications of IT to reduce discretion and increase transparency -- the scope seems almost limitless. As such the newly re-constituted anti-corruption commission should seriously consider to have a national data base on the claims/ allegations/ newspaper reports of corruptions and it should be updated regularly on the present status of the case.
Quick disposal of corruption cases is yet another area where proper attention should be given by the authority concerned. Special legal provisions must be in place to quicken the processes of trial at least to give the impression that the government is sincere and serious in combating corruption. In this respect, some quick exemplary punitive actions taken against the culprits will go a long way in enhancing the credibility of the anti-corruption agency.
Another really effective deterrent measure will be to apply stiffer sanctions, specially jail sentences for corrupt behaviour, confiscation of the ill-gotten money or property, to declare unfit for public offices and electoral posts.
In fact, the fair sanction is an important deterrent. The possibilities of suffering social ostracism, financial penalties or incarceration inevitably discourage people from taking the risk of engaging in corrupt behaviour.
One of the major reasons that corruption flourishes in Bangladesh is that hardly anybody is ever punished for it. We all know that there is massive loan default, tax and customs evasion, power theft, procurement corruption like kickbacks and extortion everywhere in Bangladesh.
Yet detection and punishment of these offences is very rare. The weak application of sanctions reflects the deficiencies of the anti-corruption machinery and a judicial system in which justice is easily deferred. A combination of political will and remedies is, therefore, needed to make sanctions a more potent deterrent to corruption in the country. The Anti-Corruption Commission was in operation with a fulltime chairman and two commissioners since November 2004 but it could not be possible to attain any positive and concrete result only due to lack of initiative, drive and dynamism from the leadership.
Finally since two Asian countries -- Japan and South Korea have achieved considerable success in combating corruption, we can follow some of the practices they use.
Scenario-Japan
In Japan the National Public Service Law provides legislation relating to the discipline of national public employees in the regular service. It includes the prohibition of any act, which may cause discredit to the public service. The violation of this legislation is punishable under the disciplinary punishment rules provided by the national public service law.
The public service officials' ethics and codes of conduct are established by every ministry and agency and applied to its public service officials. They prescribe prohibited matters about contacts with businessman concerned.
There is policy, based on Cabinet division, that due consideration should be given in the appointment of national public employees so that an individual officer shall not occupy a post responsible for budget implementation or licences for a longer period of time. In addition, various kinds of training for ethics awareness are provided.
Every ministry and agency has managers of the public service discipline and a general manager of the public service discipline. As one of the measures to enhance the high level of ethical standards in the national public service, the National Personnel Authority is currently reviewing the disciplinary punishment system.
Scenario-Korea
In Korea, the act on ethics in public service aims to secure fairness in public service by preventing public officials from accumulating unlawful properties. The Act institutionalises the registration and disclosure of the reported property of both public officials and candidates for elected public office.
The Act covers high-level officials in public service-related organisations as well as all public officials in the executive agencies, the legislature and the judicial bodies. Under the law, national and local public officials higher than grade four (director or equivalent level in the central government) as well as office holders of selected positions in public service-related organisations have to report their property to the registration agency and renew their report annually.
The registered property of public officials higher than grade one (deputy minister or equivalent level in the central government) shall be made public through the official gazette or public bulletins.
The Public Service Pension Law reduces the pension by half of public officials who received penalty, impeachment of disciplinary dismissal on grounds of corruption.
Among Korean citizens, the telephone number 188 is well known. By dialing 188, any citizen can report corrupt actions of public officials to the Board of Audit and Inspection.
There is no denying the fact that widespread and pervasive corruption in government and public administration is now the number one problem of the country and the new caretaker government headed by Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed has already announced to undertake immediate appropriate measures to combat corruption.
In governance terms, corruption threatens democratic public institutions by permitting the influence of improper interest on the use of public resources and power, and by undermining the confidence of citizens in the legitimate activities of the state. In a developing country like Bangladesh where administrative norms and systems have not yet been fully in place, most effective action against corruption is to raise the awareness of all officers and staff in public service increasing the level of control, that is by having matters that would lend themselves to corruption processed by more than one official, or through increased vigilance on the part of superiors.
Corruption is a world wide phenomenon and it has got many forms, colours and dimensions and combating corruption totally is simply not possible anywhere in the world not to speak of a country like Bangladesh where the resources are limited but people's demands are innumerable.
Bribery, forgery, nepotism, ransom-taking and rent-seeking, tax evasion through collaboration with tax collectors, graft in government purchases, wrong auditing, false bidding etc are some of the forms of corruption we very often have to confront with in government offices.
The Code of conduct
To combat corruption a generally applicable code of conduct may be made available to the heads of organisations and other superiors. It will help them considerably to respond adequately to incidents and practices where the suspicion of corruption exists.
Particular emphasis should be there on a consistent supervisory control. Special training programmes for combating corrupt practices may be arranged for senior officials and heads of organisations specially to acquaint with ways of exercising control and supervisory functions. Concrete guidance on anti-corruption measures should be available to them so that they can respond in a competent way in an individual case.
Guidance and training for public officials especially at senior levels on codes of conduct, ethics and awareness may be considered as essential elements of service. These performances should primarily focus on the legitimate activities of civil servants that can be improved by further training minimising the potential of illegitimate administrative activities.
The efforts should be planned specifically to promote the efficiency of the application of laws. Also of fundamental importance is the civil servants' code of ethics, which is normally prepared on the basis of an authorisation by law. This is an undertaking in which representatives of all fields -- trade, commerce, industry, law enforcement agencies, tax collecting agency, judiciary etc also take part providing expert and professional input.
For a country like Bangladesh, the main remedial measure against further spread of corruption should be to employ the power of modern information technology to reduce civil servants' discretionary power and thereby make government more transparent and accountable. The more discretion government employees have and the less visible their actions are, the greater is the potential for abuse and corruption.
There is an incredibly wide range of possible applications of IT to reduce discretion and increase transparency -- the scope seems almost limitless. As such the newly re-constituted anti-corruption commission should seriously consider to have a national data base on the claims/ allegations/ newspaper reports of corruptions and it should be updated regularly on the present status of the case.
Quick disposal of corruption cases is yet another area where proper attention should be given by the authority concerned. Special legal provisions must be in place to quicken the processes of trial at least to give the impression that the government is sincere and serious in combating corruption. In this respect, some quick exemplary punitive actions taken against the culprits will go a long way in enhancing the credibility of the anti-corruption agency.
Another really effective deterrent measure will be to apply stiffer sanctions, specially jail sentences for corrupt behaviour, confiscation of the ill-gotten money or property, to declare unfit for public offices and electoral posts.
In fact, the fair sanction is an important deterrent. The possibilities of suffering social ostracism, financial penalties or incarceration inevitably discourage people from taking the risk of engaging in corrupt behaviour.
One of the major reasons that corruption flourishes in Bangladesh is that hardly anybody is ever punished for it. We all know that there is massive loan default, tax and customs evasion, power theft, procurement corruption like kickbacks and extortion everywhere in Bangladesh.
Yet detection and punishment of these offences is very rare. The weak application of sanctions reflects the deficiencies of the anti-corruption machinery and a judicial system in which justice is easily deferred. A combination of political will and remedies is, therefore, needed to make sanctions a more potent deterrent to corruption in the country. The Anti-Corruption Commission was in operation with a fulltime chairman and two commissioners since November 2004 but it could not be possible to attain any positive and concrete result only due to lack of initiative, drive and dynamism from the leadership.
Finally since two Asian countries -- Japan and South Korea have achieved considerable success in combating corruption, we can follow some of the practices they use.
Scenario-Japan
In Japan the National Public Service Law provides legislation relating to the discipline of national public employees in the regular service. It includes the prohibition of any act, which may cause discredit to the public service. The violation of this legislation is punishable under the disciplinary punishment rules provided by the national public service law.
The public service officials' ethics and codes of conduct are established by every ministry and agency and applied to its public service officials. They prescribe prohibited matters about contacts with businessman concerned.
There is policy, based on Cabinet division, that due consideration should be given in the appointment of national public employees so that an individual officer shall not occupy a post responsible for budget implementation or licences for a longer period of time. In addition, various kinds of training for ethics awareness are provided.
Every ministry and agency has managers of the public service discipline and a general manager of the public service discipline. As one of the measures to enhance the high level of ethical standards in the national public service, the National Personnel Authority is currently reviewing the disciplinary punishment system.
Scenario-Korea
In Korea, the act on ethics in public service aims to secure fairness in public service by preventing public officials from accumulating unlawful properties. The Act institutionalises the registration and disclosure of the reported property of both public officials and candidates for elected public office.
The Act covers high-level officials in public service-related organisations as well as all public officials in the executive agencies, the legislature and the judicial bodies. Under the law, national and local public officials higher than grade four (director or equivalent level in the central government) as well as office holders of selected positions in public service-related organisations have to report their property to the registration agency and renew their report annually.
The registered property of public officials higher than grade one (deputy minister or equivalent level in the central government) shall be made public through the official gazette or public bulletins.
The Public Service Pension Law reduces the pension by half of public officials who received penalty, impeachment of disciplinary dismissal on grounds of corruption.
Among Korean citizens, the telephone number 188 is well known. By dialing 188, any citizen can report corrupt actions of public officials to the Board of Audit and Inspection.
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