Decentralisation disperses graft

Administrative or political decentralisation does not necessarily reduce corruption, rather decentralise corruption, a senior economist said on Saturday.

"Strong civic activities along with administrative decentralisation ensure lower rate of corruption," said Dr Zahid Hussain, former lead economist of the World Bank.

Chairing a session on "Fiscal decentralisation and Corruption" at an international conference in the city, he said Bangladesh is politically and administratively a centralised country.

Panchali Banerjee of Jadavpur University, India and Dr Bushra Yasmin of Fatima Jinnah Women University, Pakistan presented two research presentations on the relation of fiscal decentralisation and corruption.

Explaining to reporters after the session, Dr Hussain said both papers argued decentralisation does not necessarily bring down corruption, though it is a common perception that administrative decentralisation reduces corruption.

He said Bangladeshi situation can't be compared with the those in India and Pakistan as both the countries have the federal system.

He said as present political leaders are not willing to change the existing unitary system, Bangladesh can strengthen local governments like upazila parishad and union council to bring down the fiscal decentralisation.

He also said sharing locally-earned revenues with local administrative units might bring down corruption and ensure decentralisation of fiscal budget to some extent.

South Asia Network on Economic Modelling (SANEM) in association with South Asia Economic Policy Network and the World Bank organised the conference.

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