Judiciary dwarfs police in corruption :TIB graft report
The Transparency International, Bangladesh, on Thursday said that the
judiciary was the most corrupt among the service sectors in the
country followed by law enforcement agencies and the land
administration.
The corruption watchdog came up with its findings at a discussion
at Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies.
The TIB prepared its report on the basis of a household survey it
conducted between June 2009 and May 2010.
The Anti-Corruption Commission chairman, Golam Rahman, who was
chief guest in the programme, said that the report had portrayed as
partial picture of corruption as the actual corruption in Bangladesh
was much higher. The report should be helpful for the judiciary system
for its correction, he added.
He also said that corruption was increasing as it had direct links
with the socio-economic and political reality of the country.
The Bangladesh chapter of the Berlin-based watchdog unveiled the
report, 'Corruption in Service Sector: National Household Survey
2010.'
The TIB chairman, M Hafizuddin Khan, presided over the programme.
TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman presented the report.
The global graft watchdog TI in another report on 'Global
Corruption Barometer 2010' published on December 9 had ranked the
police administration as the most corrupt public service institution
in Bangladesh.
Golam Rahman said, 'The judiciary was not independent in 2007. But
it is now independent and the people's perception is that corruption
has increased. We have asked for wealth statement of the former judges
and branch officers of the chief justice to find out if there is any
illegal wealth so that we can take action,' he said.
According to Household Survey 2010, about 88 per cent of people who
went for service from the judiciary system were somehow made victim of
corruption. Some 79.7 per cent of the people who went to law
enforcement agencies and 71.2 per cent who went to land administration
became victims of corruption.
The TIB report also said that corruption in the country's judiciary
system had increased by 40.3 per cent over the last three years. A
survey in 2007 had found 47.7 per cent corruption in the judiciary.
And corrupt practices in land administration also increased 18.5
per cent as it was 52.7 per cent in 2007, while the income tax sector
marked 25.4 per cent rise in corruption and power sector 12.5 per cent
rise from 33.2 per cent in 2007.
Law enforcement agencies were the highest direct bribe takers as
68.1 per cent households reported that they had to pay for getting
service from the law enforcement agencies, second was land
administration with 67 per cent and third was judiciary with 59.6 per
cent.
The TIB report also revealed that about 84.2 per cent people were
victims of corruption while receiving service from different service
sectors of the country.
The report also said that about 71.9 per cent households were
compelled to pay bribe to service sector people for getting their
services with average spending of Tk 4,838 during last year and the
total figure of the bribe amount was Tk 9,591.6 crore.
Service sectors like education, health, local government, law and
order, judiciary, power, agriculture, land administration, tax and
tariffs, banking, insurance, NGO and others were brought under this
latest TIB survey.
In the judicial sector, according to the report, 68.9 per cent of
people had to bribe the magistrates' courts with an average payment of
Tk 6,598, 58.4 per cent to judges' courts with an average payment of
Tk 6,178 and 73.6 per cent paid to the High Court with the average
amount being Tk12,761.
People who went to court for justice, 39.7 per cent and 24.5 per
cent of them were harassed by lawyers and officials of the courts
respectively while many of them were
cheated or harassed by lawyers' clerks. Besides, 41 per cent people
also faced delay in disposal of their cases.
Among the victims of corruption in the law enforcement sector, 91.2
per cent were victim of thana police and the rest 8.2 per cent made
victim by traffic police and Rapid Action Battalion.
According to the report 98.3 per cent of the people who went for
police clearance or verification had to pay Tk 731 on an average as
bribe and 88.8 people who were arrested under section 54 had to pay Tk
4,045 as bribe on an average.
The report, however, showed an improvement in the field of law and
order with corruption taking a little downturn. The prevalence of
corruption here decreased by 16.9 per cent to 79.7 per cent now from
96.6 per cent measured in 2007.
Apart from law and order, corruption also came down in health,
banking and education sectors. Corruption in these sectors decreased
by 10.9, 11.2 and 23.9 per cent respectively during the period between
2007 and 2010, the TIB report says.
This year, TIB included agriculture, local government and insurance
in corruption survey. Corruption was recorded at 45.3, 43.9 and 19.2
per cent respectively in the three new sectors under watch.
The survey was conducted between June 2009 and May 2010 when 6,000
households were interviewed by the TIB. This was the fifth similar
type of report since 1997, while the last one was conducted in 2007.
The ACC chief said, 'Nearly half of the national economy is black
money, which means it is not legal and the economy will just collapse
if the chaos continues.'
He claimed that the ACC was now acting more independently than
during the previous caretaker government's rule. In this context he
said
that a high-level government committee was formed to withdraw
political cases, but the ACC did not withdraw a single case.
http://www.newagebd.com/2010/dec/24/front.html
http://amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2010/12/24/59620
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