Different days, different ways

---

Mahmudur Rahman
A few days before the nation went into a prolonged Eid hibernation a national daily published the news of a sub-assistant engineer being caught red-handed by the Anti-Corruption officials taking a bribe from a contractor in Bogra. The same article also reported an LGED engineer being beaten up in Magura by contractors. The person in question had refused to sign their bills without being paid and was beaten up after the transaction had taken place.
In the second instance the engineer spent some time in a local clinic but no case was filed against him. The question obviously is 'why?'
Given the inherent interest in matters of public domain by the media it is curious that there was no follow-up to the report either in print or in broadcast media. There were invasions of the engineers' homes, rude questions to family members or children and no scenes flashed of wailing kith and kin bemoaning the absence of the head of the family during the holy occasion of Eid.
The person arrested by the ACC was apprehended with Tk. 2500 on his person, probably the amount given to him as 'speed' money. There was no follow-up as to how he had or not enjoyed the traditional 'improved diet' served in jails, police lock-up or the other. Someday, beyond the confines of their annual confidential reports, these men will live in the comforting embrace of an all-forgiving society and possibly even become a local or national figure. As per the comments of the finance minister in parliament this could well be defined as 'petty corruption' that can be ignored. Then why was he arrested, depriving his family of his presence on the joyous holy occasion? Perhaps a slap on the wrists would have sufficed?
The question was posed to a contractor who chuckled merrily at this scribe's obvious daftness. 'Things have changed' was his comment. "We don't need to spend all that time in their offices. The process is that the officer in question tells us of the project and we agree on the amount. We actually don't have to do anything else. Everything is processed". If this statement leaves the reader with a somewhat sick and empty feeling in the stomach it is all too bad.
There's a lot of proof out there that becomes obvious at the slightest inspection. Contractors won't help out because they too have their livelihood to think of. Their current gripe comes not from having to 'pay' but the emergence of a new group of 'contractors' who use a little more than money.
For the time being thoughts have to be with the families of those unfortunate (?) engineers. Or maybe they too have been sucked up by the torrent of dishonesty to the extent that they, too don't care.
(The writer is a former Head of Corporate & Regulatory Affairs of British American Tobacco Bangladesh.)