The President speaks his mind

Corruption
Since independence, corruption has been eating into the vitals of Bangladesh economy. But the magnitude of corruption in almost all sectors has reached such a height in the recent years that in the Berlin-based Transparency International's corruption perception index (CPI) Bangladesh has been ranked as the most corrupt country for five successive years beginning from 2001.

Corruption takes place in various forms. During the period of the successive governments, many projects were included in the ADP not on national priority consideration but on political or other considerations. The present finance minister M. Saifur Rahman is on record to admit that populist or vote oriented projects were getting priority over schemes that were really important for the economic development of the country.

Goods and services are required to be procured for implementation of development projects. Many analysts are of the opinion that corruption eats up 10 to 15 percent of the public sector procurement budget. Corruption takes place at various stages of implementation of public sector projects. Quality of work thus suffers for private gains. Law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister Moudud Ahmed is on record to admit that corruption was holding back economic progress and eating up no less than two percentage points of Bangladesh's GDP growth.

There are certain sectors of the economy that are known as 'engine of growth.' Power and communications are such vital sectors of the economy. Corruption has stalled the growth of the power sector. Aided projects on power generation could not be implemented. This prompted the World Bank (WB) Country Director for Bangladesh Christine Wallich to disclose in an international workshop held on August 29 last in the capital that 'over the past six years, some 15 power plants have been publicly tendered, but only three were awarded. The procurement processes followed were questionable and non-transparent and not in the interest of good outcomes for Bangladesh. Had the tendering process not been undermined, two world-class project finance structuresMeghnaghat 11 and Sirajganjcould already be providing 900 MW of very low cost power to the system. Instead, we now see load shedding of about 900 MW a day.'

According to a corruption database prepared by the Transparency International-Bangladesh (TIB), the country incurred a financial loss of about Tk 415 crore last year due to corruption. The communication sector turned out to be the most corrupt of all the sectors. Corruption in this sector caused a loss of Tk 98 crore to the economy last year. The other sectors rated highly corrupt in the TIB's database include police, education, forest, relief and disaster management.

Another survey titled 'Corruption in Bangladesh: A Household Survey' conducted by the TIB to find out the nature of corruption, the broad spectrum, the depth and losses made by corruption between September 10 and October 24, 2004 in approximately 3,000 households of 55 districts has revealed that people pay corrupt officials of 25 service sector institutions an estimated Tk 6,796 crore a year in bribes. The survey identified land and land-related departments, police stations and lower courts as the most corruption-prone sectors. The other areas are health, education, power, the tax department, arbitration and relief of local government and pension.

Inefficiency
Inefficiency is a challenge to our economic growth. Inefficiency encompasses development and non-development sectors. Development projects, when implemented, create wealth for the nation. There is inordinate delay in the preparation, approval and implementation of many development projects. Many ministries and agencies fail to utilise the money allocated in the annual development programme (ADP) against their development projects due to constraints such as tough procedure for release of fund, delay in the appointments of consultants and contractors, procurement of goods, etcetera. As a result, there are delays and cost overrun in the implementation of many of the development projects. We often come across such reports in the media.

The global business survey titled " Doing Business in 2006: Creating Jobs" conducted by the World Bank and International Finance Corporation reveals that the cost to start a business in Bangladesh is the highest in the South Asian region. The survey shows that the cost to start a business, as a percentage of per capita income, in Bangladesh is 81.4 percent against Nepal's 69.9 percent, India's 61.7 percent, Pakistan's 18.6 percent and Sri Lanka's 10.4 percent.

The recently released Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2005-06 dealing with Growth Competitiveness Index (GCI) and Business Competitiveness Index (BCI) has ranked Bangladesh 110th among 117 countries, eight notches down from last year's ranking (GCR 2004-05 ranked Bangladesh 102nd among 104 countries).

In a United Nation's (UN) report presented at the UN meet in New York on September 14-16 last, Bangladesh has achieved the fifth worst ranking due to its very poor performance in poverty alleviation (0.52 percent against the target of 2.2 percent).

According to analysts, inefficiency and concomitant corruption are primarily responsible for the dismal performances in the aforesaid areas.

Poor governance
'Governance denotes how people are ruled, how the affairs of the state are administered and regulated as well as a nation's system of politics and how these function in relation to public administration and law.' Poor governance, a strong impediment to overall national growth, particularly economic growth, is characterised by lack of transparency, absence of accountability, lack of participation of the civil society, including the poor and disadvantaged groups in the decision-making process and widespread corruption.

Existing laws, rules and regulations such as Official Secrets Act, Evidence Act, Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, Rules of Business fetter openness in public offices. Besides, rules, regulations, executive orders and procedures in public offices are very often not clear enough. Absence of openness and lack of transparency in government business operations like tender evaluation, tax assessment, financial performance of public agencies, etc. give rise to corruption that adversely affects the national economy.

Democratic governance presupposes people's participation in the decision-making process. In our top-down decision-making process, there is lack of effective participation of the people at the grassroots level, including the poor and the disadvantaged who constitute about 50 percent of the population. Failure to gradually change the lot of the poor and the disadvantaged groups leads to acceleration of social problems and thereby affects national harmony and development.

Weaknesses in institutional management
Managing the national institutions properly in all the three organs of the state namely executive, judiciary and legislative is the sine qua non for good governance and national development. But we have failed to manage the national institutions properly.

There are allegations that during the last 14-plus years of rule of the BNP and the AL, national institutions like Public Service Commission (PSC) and Election Commission (EC) have been highly politicised. Appointment of ruling party sympathisers as chairmen and members of the PSC since early nineties has influenced recruitment of activists and sympathisers of the ruling party/parties depriving meritorious candidates in clear violation of the PSC's charter "to conduct tests and examinations for the selection of suitable persons for appointment to the service of the Republic." Recent recruitment of 150 or so activists of the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), the student wing of the ruling BNP, as Upazila Election Officers is a much-talked-about subject. The PSC has not yet come out with any statement refuting the allegation. There goes a saying: " Silence gives consent." Leaking of question papers of various examinations has become a regular phenomenon. Such mismanagement and partisan activities have led to the loss of public confidence in the neutrality of the national institutionPSC.

Appointment of sympathisers of the ruling party/parties as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) has been a bone of contention between the ruling party/parties and the opposition, particularly the main opposition. The recent appointment of the CEC paying no heed to the demand of the opposition political parties including the main opposition AL to appoint the CEC through consensus of all political parties has created a political stalemate as the main opposition has refused to participate in the ensuing general election under the incumbent CEC. It has so far refrained from participating in the by-elections held under the incumbent CEC to vacant seats of parliament. People have seen how the Dhaka-10 by-election in 2004 was nakedly interfered by the ruling BNP. People have seen the helplessness of the immediate past CEC against the activities of the secretary to the EC who enjoys the blessings of the chief executive.

Judiciary is one of the three pillars of the state, the other two being the executive and the legislature. During the last 14 years' successive rule of the BNP and the AL, appointments in the higher judiciary consisting of the High Court Division and the Appellate Division have been highly politicised. In the absence of constitutional obligation to consult the Chief Justice in the appointment of judges or Judicial Council to recommend appointment of judges in the higher judiciary, the appointment of judges is at the pleasure of the executive. Where will the people go if the image of the higher judiciary which is the last resort of the aggrieved persons is tarnished by the partisan activities of the party/parties in power?

The parliament, which is supposed to be the most appropriate place to discuss and settle all the issues of national interest, has been largely dysfunctional due to sustained boycott of the sittings and sessions of parliament by the lawmakers of the main opposition party during the last 14 years or so. With the involvement of members of parliament (MPs) in development and non-development works in their constituencies, attending the sittings of the house or the committees has ceased to be a priority to many of them. This is evident from the repeated quorum crises in the sittings of parliament.

It is a fact that in the parliamentary system of government that we have the President is a ceremonial head of state. He acts in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister. But that does not prevent the President from pinpointing the malaises in the governance and ask the government to take remedial measures. As the conscience keeper of the nation the President must speak his mind. This will increase the image and dignity of his office in the eyes of the public. His activities will, however, have to prove that he is non-partisan.

M. Abdul Latif Mondal is a former Secretary to government.