'Bribe money' in service sector still accounts for 2.4pc of GDP : TIB report

---

FE Report
The households in Bangladesh paid nearly Tk 220 billion as the aggregate amount of 'bribe money' in 2012 to get services of the government and non-government institutions, according to the findings of a survey by Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) which was released on Friday.
The amount of "bribe money", as revealed by the TIB study, is 2.4 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and 13.6 per cent of the revised national budget for fiscal year (FY) 2011-12.
According to TIB's previous household survey, the amount of bribe money was Tk 90 billion, accounting for 8.7 per cent of the national budget for FY 2009-10.
Bangladesh chapter of the Berlin-based Transparency International launched the report titled 'Corruption in Service Sector: National Household Survey 2012' at a press conference at CIRDAP auditorium in the capital.
TIB Trustee Board Chairperson, Sultana Kamal chaired the report launching event where executive director of the organisation, Iftekharuzzaman was, among others, present.
The overall corruption in service sector in the country, however, came down by nearly 30 per cent in 2012 compared to the situation covered under the previous report of the TIB, the findings of the survey further indicated.
The survey report gave the credit for the achievement to various efforts taken by both the government and private sector for creating a greater awareness against corruption than before, among the citizens.
But the survey findings disclosed that the average volume of 'bribe money' involved in the service sector more than doubled over the amount reported in its previous survey in 2010.
Mr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of TIB, told the newsmen at the report launching event that mixed scenarios were observed in the latest survey findings, as the overall situation about corruption in service sector showed some improvement -- from 84.2 per cent in 2010 to 55.8 per cent in 2012.
"But it is alarming that the average rate of bribe paid by each household has increased to Tk 6,900 in 2012 from the previous survey's estimation of Tk 3,184," he said.
He said the latest survey was conducted on 7,554 randomly selected households which shared their experience regarding 14 service sectors.
The survey findings mentioned that the rate of corruption in almost all the service sectors declined, except health, where sector-wise corruption comparison showed around 7.0 per cent increase during this period.
Disclosing the findings, TIB director (research and policy) M Rafiqul Hasan said the labour immigration services, included for the first time in the biennial TIB survey, topped the list of corruption among 14 service sectors.
The 2012 survey found out that 3.2 per cent of the households took the labour immigration services, and 77 per cent of such households fell victim to corruption, mostly conducted by their relatives or close acquaintances.
The households to the extent of 21.9 per cent of those surveyed, faced corruption of the officials of the recruiting agencies."
The survey also showed that only 9.2 per cent, 8.6 per cent and 16.6 per cent households took services from the law-enforcing agencies, judiciary and land administration respectively, indicating a very poor public confidence on those institutions, he said.
The report said the ratios of households getting services from agriculture, power and local government sector institutions were also below 50 per cent.
"It is a clear indication that the people are not interested in availing such services and are maintaining their distance from them," Ms Sultana Kamal said.
"The main reason for the downward trend in the rate of corruption in service sectors is increased awareness campaign in the society," she noted.
Responding to a query, she said the government must empower institutions like the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to achieve better results.
The TIB representatives also ruled out the possibility of any government pressure while preparing the report. They said the report findings have no relation with the Berlin-based Transparency International's corruption perception index (CPI) report, as the CPI deals with grand corruption, but the household survey focuses on petty corruption.
UNB adds: About the reduction in the ratio of households facing corruption while getting services, from 84.2 per cent to 55.8 per cent, the TIB report said that the reduction of graft incidents was mostly due to the factor that there was also a drastic reduction in the ratio of households getting the necessary services.
TIB Trustee Board chairman Sultana Kamal said: "It's evident that the ratio of service-availing households in most of the sectors has got down to 50 per cent mark. It's indicating that people are maintaining a distance from the services."
"The people are not availing themselves of the services. It indicates the service-providing institutions are not functioning well," she said.
The cost for availing of the related services also increased at the same time as the officials are now charging high premiums to deal with the risk in corruption, observed Ms Kamal, while noting further that the average spending for 'bribes' per household now stands at Tk 6,900 which was Tk 3,184 in the 2010 TIB survey.
TIB executive director, Iftekharuzzaman also echoed Sultana Kamal's opinion that people are increasingly losing interest in availing themselves of the necessary services from both the government and the non-government institutions as the officials are taking high premiums in 'bribe' for the service delivery.
The full report of the TIB survey will be published on its website by the next week, TIB director (research and policy) Mr Rafiqul said.
Another agency report said: The anti-graft watchdog said the biennial survey had been conducted six times till now since 1997.
The report included the outcome of surveys in 13 service sectors conducted between May 2011 and April 2012, and household study from May 15 to July 4 this year.