Combating corruption effectively
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Bangladesh, according to international anti-corruption watchdog -- Transparency International (TI), has made some progress in combating corruption. TI ranks countries around the world for their corruption, annually. It has found Bangladesh rising above the ten most corrupt countries in its rating through corruption perception index for the current year. In 2008, Bangladesh was ranked as the 10th most corrupt country. Before that, it topped the list for five years in succession as the most corruption-afflicted country. The latest ranking puts Bangladesh in the 13th position among the most corrupt countries. This would otherwise show some considerable improvements in the situation of Bangladesh from its earlier position. There are certainly grounds for taking some satisfaction for this upward progression in the corruption perception of the country. This is particularly so because Bangladesh had for long suffered the worst image problem in this regard.
Some strong anti-corruption moves, particularly during the last caretaker government, has had an impact on seemingly improving this corruption perception of the country. However, there are not yet reasons enough to read too much into this improvement in the corruption ranking which is still not so significant. The country has to move up a lot more higher in the ranking to count the results as showing major successes on a sustained basis. Even the recent attainments in this area could prove to be unsustainable if the incumbent government allows the zeal against corruption in the country to become weaker from any lack of its vigorous support of the same.
There is no denying that last caretaker government did commit some excesses in the name of fighting corruption. The worst aspects of it were that it had its choose-and-pick or pick-and-choose approach to fighting corruption and it wanted to equate irregularities with corruption without consideration of the systemic problems and the socio-economic conditions of the country and also not clearly defining corruption as misuse of public office or power for making private fortunes. Yet then , the last caretaker government should be credited for having started the drive against corruption. The initial support for it stemmed mainly from its stand against corruption but that support declined as people witnessed that the anti-corruption drive was not being conducted successfully or giving some wrong signals about its real purpose.
In this backdrop, what the people now expect from the elected government is that it should learn from the mistakes and failures of the immediate past government and maintain the struggle against corruption without inviting criticisms of inexpert handling, malicious or grossly unfair activities. For that matter, it must define, first of all, corruption in its proper context and deal with the 'corrupt' individuals without any political or other discrimination. The powers of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) should also be properly delineated. But its functional autonomy and independence must not be compromised. On its part, the ACC should not also overburden itself, extending its domain to deal with petty crimes, irregularities in financial transactions or related matters -- the matters that can be left to other government bodies to deal with. The ACC should not be required to obtain prior approval from the government before starting cases against bigwigs in the government itself or in other sectors, within its clearly defined operational jurisdiction. Then, there are also other areas where the government should express its commitment towards maintaining the gauntlet against corruption by building capacities to that end.
On the whole, the government's resolve will be tested in the coming months about whether it truly wants to maintain an effective stand against corruption. The people will closely watch in the coming days the activities of the government to redeem its election time promises about maintaining the drive against corruption with enough zest. Effective corruption fighting will also require carrying on with activities to reform the political parties and the bureaucracy and to address the systemic problems that help breed corruption.
Some strong anti-corruption moves, particularly during the last caretaker government, has had an impact on seemingly improving this corruption perception of the country. However, there are not yet reasons enough to read too much into this improvement in the corruption ranking which is still not so significant. The country has to move up a lot more higher in the ranking to count the results as showing major successes on a sustained basis. Even the recent attainments in this area could prove to be unsustainable if the incumbent government allows the zeal against corruption in the country to become weaker from any lack of its vigorous support of the same.
There is no denying that last caretaker government did commit some excesses in the name of fighting corruption. The worst aspects of it were that it had its choose-and-pick or pick-and-choose approach to fighting corruption and it wanted to equate irregularities with corruption without consideration of the systemic problems and the socio-economic conditions of the country and also not clearly defining corruption as misuse of public office or power for making private fortunes. Yet then , the last caretaker government should be credited for having started the drive against corruption. The initial support for it stemmed mainly from its stand against corruption but that support declined as people witnessed that the anti-corruption drive was not being conducted successfully or giving some wrong signals about its real purpose.
In this backdrop, what the people now expect from the elected government is that it should learn from the mistakes and failures of the immediate past government and maintain the struggle against corruption without inviting criticisms of inexpert handling, malicious or grossly unfair activities. For that matter, it must define, first of all, corruption in its proper context and deal with the 'corrupt' individuals without any political or other discrimination. The powers of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) should also be properly delineated. But its functional autonomy and independence must not be compromised. On its part, the ACC should not also overburden itself, extending its domain to deal with petty crimes, irregularities in financial transactions or related matters -- the matters that can be left to other government bodies to deal with. The ACC should not be required to obtain prior approval from the government before starting cases against bigwigs in the government itself or in other sectors, within its clearly defined operational jurisdiction. Then, there are also other areas where the government should express its commitment towards maintaining the gauntlet against corruption by building capacities to that end.
On the whole, the government's resolve will be tested in the coming months about whether it truly wants to maintain an effective stand against corruption. The people will closely watch in the coming days the activities of the government to redeem its election time promises about maintaining the drive against corruption with enough zest. Effective corruption fighting will also require carrying on with activities to reform the political parties and the bureaucracy and to address the systemic problems that help breed corruption.