TIB report not reliable: SC
The Supreme Court says it has found the survey report by Transparency
International, Bangladesh on corruption in the judiciary 'unreliable'.
The review committee of the apex court submitted its evaluation to a
full court meeting on Thursday.
The evaluation report says the committee is not satisfied with the
questionnaires of the survey.
The committee said it had expected to detect corrupt individuals in
the judiciary with data of the international corruption whistleblower.
However, that expectation was not met.
TIB in its report published on Dec 23 titled 'Corruption in Service
Sectors: National Household Survey 2010' said the High Court, among
the judiciary, is where exchange of kickback takes place most.
The survey was conducted on 6,000 households in 64 districts from June
2009 to May 2010.
The report says 88 percent households of the country have been victims
to corruption in the judiciary while 79.7 percent have suffered due to
corruption in law-enforcing agencies.
The court, in its reaction, issued an order to TIB on Dec 28 last
year, asking for its full report for scrutiny.
On Dec 30, the court formed the review committee with five members led
by justice Abdul Wahhab Miah to scrutinise the report. The committee
later asked for raw data of the survey after finding the report
'blurred and incomplete'.
TIB provided the court with 650 questionnaires and answers.
TIB Trustee Board chairman M Hafiz Uddin Khan and executive director
Iftekharuzzaman took part in a discussion on Jan 13 following an
invitation by the committee.
NO ALLEGATION AGAINST JUDGES
The TIB chairman and its executive director told the committee in the
Jan 13 meeting that there were no allegations of taking bribes or
harassment against the chief justice or other SC judges.
They came up with the answer when the committee had asked whether
there were any specific allegation against the four judges of the
Appellate Division, five members of the investigation team and 89
others of the High Court, according to the evaluation report.
'JUDICIARY' WAS NOT APPROPRIATE
TIB was unsure whether to use the term 'judiciary' in its report.
The TIB members admitted at the meeting that the use perhaps was not
correct. "We discussed with a lot of people but could not ascertain
which term to use."
Asked about their definitions of 'judiciary' and 'corruption', they
replied: "By judiciary we meant judges, lawyers, lawyers' clerks and
touts. Corruption in the judiciary meant bribes taken by the lawyers,
clerks, touts, judges and court officials from those seeking justice."
In reply to a question, the TIB officials said they had no names of
judges, lawyers or lawyers' clerks whom the households had bribed.
They also said they had no information about corrupt judges in the
judiciary, according to the evaluation report.
'SURVEYORS WERE IRRESPONSIBLE'
The evaluation report says that those involved with the survey, though
they are learned and conscientious, have showed a lack of
responsibility while terming the judiciary corrupt without any
substantial and authentic information.
The [TIB] report has tarnished the judiciary's image among the people
and the judges have been humiliated socially, both at home and abroad,
the evaluation report says.
CORRUPTION IS THERE
The evaluation committee emphasised that it was not satisfied with the
methodology of the survey. The questions and answers appeared
unreliable to the committee.
Based on the discussion with the TIB officials, the committee
concluded: "Clearly, TIB published the report with a misconception
that the entire judicial system was the judiciary."
The evaluation report says lawyers, their clerks and 'touts' are not
part of the judiciary. But TIB associated them with the judges and
court officials to term it the most corrupt sector.
However, the review committee admitted the presence of different types
of corruption in 'judicial management'.
The committee opined that there should efforts to curb corruption fast
with the cooperation of all.
http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=185127&cid=2
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