(Assignment 4) Corruption in Bangladesh - Isha Bhallamudi

In 2016, Bangladesh was ranked as the 13^th most corrupt country in the world; it is regularly ranked among the top 20 most corrupt countries globally. In my first assignment, I had already moved beyond particular syndromes to emphasize the pervasiveness of corruption in Bangladesh, across different sectors and spheres of life. I will be taking this forward here in accordance with the aims of the assignment.

Two things are common across most high profile cases of corruption in Bangladesh: multiple levels of bribery and undue influence of powerful individuals. To move to everyday practices of corruption: it is very telling that that 77% of Bangladeshis surveyed by Transparency International said they were forced to pay bribes. In my first assignment, I took up 3 cases to show that there is a pervasive culture of corruption embedded across social, cultural, political and economic structures and apparatuses in Bangladesh. This is exacerbated by an incapacitated civil society (due to extreme loss of trust) and government inaction- two features that accompany all instances of corruption in Bangladesh.

Crucially, unlike most developed countries, in Bangladesh corruption is not restricted to an exclusive elite network but extends across the interactions of state, market and civil society. It also extends across every sphere of daily life, affecting the normal way of life of most people: this includes in the bureaucracy, public administration, service delivery (education, health, water and electricity sectors), police and judiciary. It can be said to be characterized by a range of corrupt systems including clientism, neopatrimonialism, nepotism and cronyism. Importantly, this also means that redressal mechanisms even if they exist are very weak. Access to justice is extremely difficult due to weak enforcement of laws, and there are regular allegations of abuse, including extra-judicial killings by the state apparatus. Civil society, including media, is very weak and self-censorship is common.

Therefore, corruption in Bangladesh is literally a way of life. These are the most important features of corruption in Bangladesh: its pervasiveness across different assemblages in and of society, no redressal mechanisms, and a weak civil society. Together, these ensure that the culture of corruption continues and is proliferated with complete impunity. Foucault’s dispositif is highly apt to describe the way corruption functions in Bangladesh, and it also helps illustrate that it is also exceptionally difficult to tackle: given its pervasiveness, where and how does one begin?

There is already an Anti-Corruption Commission, but its functioning is largely tokenistic and possibly serves to exacerbate political competition through politically motivated allegations of corruption. If corruption is to be mitigated, the following steps are necessary:

1.     Measuring the extent of corruption in such a way that captures its dynamic aspects and pervasiveness (both qualitatively and quantitatively)

2.     Setting up a comprehensive anti-corruption agency which is independent yet accountable (how and to whom?), and has a broad scope for implementation

3.     Wide scale public awareness of corruption and its extent

4.     It must have the following functions: investigative, educational, policymaking, legislative, preventive

5.     A strong independent set of audits carried out in every sphere, with the results to be made public

6.     Strengthening judicial institutions through establishing code of conduct, training, ensuring quality of appointments, ensuring judicial independence, protection of judges etc.

7.     Reforming the civil service by actions such as decentralization, evidence based management system, strict accountability, employment reform, winning public trust, etc.

Most importantly, all these elements must be integrated and carried out simultaneously. Along with this, it is also crucial to have a bottom up set of efforts to strengthen civil society, the fourth estate, and strengthen reporting mechanisms for corruption. Only a robust civil society can have scope to mitigate the adverse impacts of corruption. However, the measures suggested here have several implementation problems, starting from who will institute them, given that the current national leaders and parties themselves are extremely corrupt; and who will fund them; and how corruption in funding itself can be prevented, and so on.

Of course, if this was a question that could be answered so simply, the problem wouldn’t exist in the first place for me to analyse here- but the measures above do provide a rough schema of priority actions that give a starting point for tackling such a pervasive culture of corruption.

References:

1.     The World Bank. “World Bank Statement on Padma Bridge.” Worldbank.org. 29 June 2012. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2012/06/29/world-bank-statement-padma-bridge (accessed March 1, 2016).

2.     Bergman, David. “Bangladesh: Rana Plaza architect says building was never meant for factories.” The Telegraph. 3 May 2013. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/bangladesh/10036546/Bangladesh-Rana-Plaza-architect-says-building-was-never-meant-for-factories.html (accessed March 1, 2016).

3.     D.B. “Fresh innocents to the slaughter.” The Economist. 18 January 2011. http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2011/01/stockmarket_riots_bangladesh (accessed March 1, 2016).

4.     Knox, C. “Dealing with sectoral corruption in Bangladesh: Developing citizen involvement.” Public Admin. Dev, 2009: 117-132.

5.     Montero, David. “Bangladesh: Following the Siemens Bribery Trail.” Frontline World. 1 April 2009. http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bribe/2009/04/bangladesh-following-the-siemens-bribery-trail.html (accessed March 1, 2016).

6.     PTI. “Probe panel finds massive manipulation at Bangla stock market.” The Economic Times. 7 April 2011. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-04-07/news/29392594_1_debacle-manipulation-probe-committee (accessed March 1, 2016).

7.     Wickberg, S. Overview of corruption and anti-corruption in Bangladesh. No. 353, U4, 2012.

8.     Yardley, Jim. “After Bangladesh Factory Collapse, Bleak Struggle for Survivors.” New York Times. 8 December 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/19/world/asia/after-collapse-bleak-struggle.html?pagewanted=all (accessed March 1, 2016).