Photo : Messenger
Corruption is the biggest threat to people in the country. We must fight it with all our might, but the major onus lies with the political party now in power.
The writer of this piece has been working with private business firms for about 49 years at a stretch. Every job for us is a dire emergency, needed one to execute our work in a faster stride to satisfy our overseas customers to get more business and to get payment in foreign currency from them on the same scale. Citing an example: our group of companies shall have to deal with 30 plus government office on a regular basis.
The private sector business entities are the largest platform to provide with jobs for innumerable jobless persons.
From my long-standing years of handling with government offices, I wish to write down truthfully my unsound experiences with them:
1.The vast majority offices are not fitfully equipped with requisite manpower and minimum IT related office equipment;
2.Work process is very lengthy and time-consuming;
3.Most of the officials, from top to bottom, including lower-grade of worker and security guards, are intensely bribee;
4.Even if all of our compliance is maintained, kickback in fatso cashbox is mandatory for them;
5. All government officials are public servants, their behavour must be genteel, but in fact, they are very rude; but they are public servants;
6. The atmosphere in all those offices is not business-supportive; rather, it is very unfavourable, and
The officials in those offices have made a culture to call them as ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ by service takers, whereas they are public servants.
The country's business leaders have also raised allegations of rampant bribery and irregularities in government offices, which is impeding businesses and fresh investments.
How to win a victory over all these wrongdoings:
a) Government offices shall have to be filled-up with requisite manpower and minimum IT-related office equipment;
b) One-stop simple work process with faster services;
c) The government must issue a stern office order to all offices for not taking any bribe from anybody and a strong campaign shall be carried on through media and public meeting by the government leaders;
d) If any non-compliance is found against any official, immediate action shall have to be taken against him or her. If need be, new appropriate law(s) shall have to be adopted to punish those corrupt officials; and
e) Since the government officials are public servants, they must address the visitors or service receivers to their offices as ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ whichever is applicable.
Forms of corruption vary but include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling, graft, and embezzlement. Corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise, such as, drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, though is not restricted to these activities only.
Unlawful political parties, which were born in the military bivouac on September 1, 1978, and January 1, 1986, by profaned military dictators using government spy agencies illegitimately and spending fatso cashbox from the government exchequer forbidden by law and who were self-proclaimed Presidents of Bangladesh, are also grievous political corruptions.
The media outlets in the country have revealed so many corrupt names in recent times. Now people want to see abrasive punishment to those hellish creatures.
"Let corruption not be an obstacle to our path of development, let not corruption ruin all of our achievements. So, it's our responsibility to contain corruption," Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said repeatedly. She further said that it is her government’s responsibility to contain corruption for safeguarding all development programmes. But that must not be word for word only. People want to see that these commitments are reflected soon through the government actions.
Everyone in the country is disgusted to have seen the very high magnitude of corruption now going on in the country. Internationally, Bangladesh also has plunged into a great image crisis!
Since I have been working with private business firms (still working) for more than 49 years. Every day, I along with my colleagues am facing extremely corrupt government officials. These people are so unblushing that they force us to give them kickbacks in fat amounts in a very short time. If we fail to hear them in time, they penalise us by way of unthinkable amount of money, and they reserve every right to continue or discontinue business of our companies!
The government should take a vow to root out existing corruption and further the development of anti-corruption initiatives. The country has a robust anti-corruption framework, but laws are inadequately enforced and accountability in all public sectors remains low.
While performing work for a government or as a representative, it is unethical to accept a gift. Any free gift could be construed as a scheme to lure the recipient towards some biases. In most cases, the gift is seen as an intention to seek certain favours, such as, work promotion, tipping in order to win a contract, job, or exemption from certain tasks in the case of junior employee giving the gift to a senior employee, who can be key in winning the favour.
In politics, corruption undermines democracy and good governance by flouting or even subverting formal processes. Corruption erodes the institutional capacity of government, if procedures are disregarded, resources are syphoned off, and public offices are bought and sold. Corruption undermines the legitimacy of government and such democratic values as trust and tolerance.
Corruption can also impact government’s provision of goods and services. It increases the costs of goods and services, which arise efficiency loss. In the absence of corruption, governmental projects might be cost-effective at their true costs; however, once corruption costs are included, projects may not be cost-effective, so they are not executed, distorting the provision of goods and services.
Corruption also generates economic distortion in the public sector by diverting public investment into capital projects where bribes and kickbacks are more plentiful. Corruption also lowers compliance with construction, environmental, or other regulations, reduces the quality of government services and infrastructure, and increases budgetary pressures on the government.
Corruption facilitates environmental destruction. While corrupt societies may have formal legislation to protect the environment, it cannot be enforced if officials can easily be bribed. The same applies to social rights worker protection, unionisation prevention, and child labour. Violation of these laws rights enables corrupt countries to gain illegitimate economic advantage in the international market.
In construction and shelter, there are numerous opportunities for diversion and profit through substandard workmanship, kickbacks for contracts and favouritism in the provision of valuable shelter material. Thus, while humanitarian aid agencies are usually most concerned about aid being diverted by including too many; recipients themselves are most concerned about exclusion.
Corruption plays a huge role in health care system, starting from the hospital, to the government and lifted to the other institutions that promote quality and affordable health care to the people. The efficiency of health care delivery in any country is heavily dependent on accountable and transparent systems, proper management of both financial and human resources and timely supply of services to the vulnerable populace of the nation.
At the basic level, greed skyrockets corruption. When the structure of the health care system is not adequately addressed, beginning from oversight in healthcare delivery and supply of drugs and tendering process, mismanagement and misappropriation of funds will always be observed. Corruption also can undermine health care service delivery, which in turn disorients the lives of the poor.
Corruption leads to violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms as people supposed to benefit from the basic health care from the governments are denied due to unscrupulous processes driven by greed. Therefore, for a country to keep citizens healthy there must be efficient systems and proper resources that can tame the evils like corruption that underpin it.
Academic promotions in the higher educational institutions have been disabled by unlimited corruption. Presently, promotion is based on personal connections than professional achievements. This has led to dramatic increase in the number of professors and exhibits their rapid status loss. Utmost the flawed processes in the academic institutions has led to unbaked graduates who are not well fit to the job market.
Corruption is the enemy of development, and of good governance. It must be got rid of. Both the government and the people at large must come together to achieve this national objective.
For wiping out corruption from the country, a strong-boned war is a dire emergency needed one by the government under the able and dynamic stewardship of Bangabandhu Mujib’s gracious daughter PM Sheikh Hasina.
The writer is a freedom fighter who writes on politics and international issues.
Messenger/Fameema
