More bark than bite
Not only has the World Bank (WB) cancelled further aid for certain projects, it has demanded immediate punitive measures against officials responsible for corruption in these projects. Plus, the WB has also demanded refund of the money so far spent on these projects.

This is for the first time that a donor organization has gone to such length and in such harsh a manner to make its point. Outright cancellation of project funds, calling for refund of spent resources and demanding punishment of government officials, the triple penalties is without a parallel not only in the long history of developmental assistance to this country but among most of the other developing countries as well who are the recipients of such funds.

It needs no hard think to realize why the WB acted in the manner it did. WB is a flagship donor organization and the trend set by it can be counted as reflective of the mood of the donor organizations and countries as a whole. The worry the country should be that this is just a beginning. WB has unambiguously sent a message by its aid cancellation and demanding of other measures that it is running out of patience with the foot dragging in taking convincing anti-corruption measures.

Donors have been insisting on the formation of appropriate anti corruption mechanisms, including the independent anti-corruption commission, to launch a strong enough campaign against the cancer of corruption in Bangladesh. But they were disappointed to see the formation of a rather enfeebled anti-corruption commission from the outset that lacked empowerment or jurisdiction to be able to move against the heavyweights of corruption in the country. Donors were also galled by lack of progress in other areas where taking of measures would make conditions more conducive for fighting corruption. It appears that donors are starting to question the government's credibility or sincerity in taking appropriate anticorruption measures.

The immediate effect of the move will not be significant in terms of the country's development because the projects are small and in the social sectors. But its real purport is symbolism. Government leaders in Bangladesh may bombast that they can do without foreign assistance. But everyone in the country realizes that foreign assistance plays a very important role in financing the country's developmental activities and without the same the country would face a very serious economic predicament. Thus, the onus has been created for the government to prove that it really means business in taking decisive actions against corruption.

The strengthening of institutions is likely to contribute most to the fight against corruption. Government has disabled the Department of Anti-corruption which was perceived to be underperforming and had limited powers to move against government potentates. This was replaced by what the government claims to be an independent Anti-corruption Commission. But doubts have surfaced about the real independence of this Anti-corruption Commission.

What good can come if another anticorruption body is raised to replace the older one if it is completely unrestrained nature cannot be ensured? Any new corruption fighting instrument is not likely to be so much more effective than its predecessor if it cannot move freely against anybody or everybody. Members of the government-- meaning both civil servants and politicians of the ruling party-- spawn the most corruption in this country. If the Anti-corruption Commission is restrained from taking actions against ruling party members or high ranking bureaucrats because the top functionaries of the Commission remain sympathetic towards the government or have intangible links with it, then the kind of determined actions that are expected and needed to curb corruption will not be there. Thus, the government must prove that it has sufficiently empowered the Anti-corruption Commission to do its work effectively without fear or favour. This is the main task it must accomplish if it wants to prove that it really wants to take up the gauntlet against corruption.

The higher judiciary of the country tends to demonstrate a flair for independence although doubts have been voiced whether even this section of the judiciary is truly free in the absence of effective separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary. The lower judiciary is the greater victim of this non-separation of powers and the executive branch of the government allegedly intervenes frequently in the activities of the lower judiciary. Understandably, this interventionism shelters many forms of corruption the only antidote to which can be no other than effective separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary at the soonest. But this vital task is pending and, before its completion, the stage will not be really set to deal powerful blows to corruption.

Parliamentary committees in functional democracies play a very useful role in watching over all spheres of governmental activities with a view to making the same transparent and accountable. Unfortunately, the parliamentary committees in Bangladesh have not acquired the desired level of efficiency and effectiveness in playing such a role. Thus, the strengthening of the parliamentary committees ought to occupy an important place in the agenda of the government as well as the opposition. The appointment of an ombudsman and the creation of an ombudsman's office should be given highest priority for the same reasons.

The police in particular has become too corrupt and a great deal of the corruption related woes of the country have a relationship to this police force. All governments from now on must aim for sweeping reforms of the police force among its highest priorities. No intention of good governance will quite succeed keeping unchanged such a decadent police force. It must undergo drastic reforms for the revival of honesty and integrity in its ranks. Reforms should include generally all government services. Shocking cases of corruption have been reported in governmental departments related to education, public works, civil aviation, customs, shipping, etc. Reforms within a time-bound framework should aim to reduce corruption in these government departments.

All of the above measures and more will depend, critically, on the greater activism of the press and citizens' group in building up pressure for anti-corruption measures. All should step up their activities and intensify a campaign so that political parties are obliged to recognise corruption as an issue of paramount importance.

ACC has little to show
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has completed its first year of existence with very little to show in terms of achievement. Due to lack of an organogram it failed to start functioning systematically not to mention its prime task of initiating investigation of corruption cases.

Chairman of the ACC and two Commissioners have said this separately and highlighted their one-year achievements.
Justice Sultan Hossain Khan, Chairman of the ACC said that it was not possible to prevent long accumulated corruption related crimes or corruption immediately after the enactment of a law. Long term planning, political will, awareness and cooperation of all quarters, including common people are needed for the prevention of corruption.

Justice Khan said the following frame rules are necessary for making the ACC fully effective which needed to be approved and notified by the government for the Commission are an organogram, formulation of recruitment and service rules, framing rules for submission of the statement of assets, rules for approving the filing of the cases and framing rules for appointment of permanent prosecutors.

Draft of the aforesaid rules have been formulated and submitted to the government, in accordance with the suggestion of the Asian Development Bank, for its approval, he said.

Justice Khan said, the Commission has played active role in some areas like—action taken regarding misuse of some thousands of vehicles after completion of the projects under different ministries and divisions—import of rice from India which was not fit for human consumption—complain of irregularity in the cell phone tenders—installation of close circuit camera in Chittagong port. Proper steps have been taken to prevent corruption in different land ports and various government offices.

The Commission believes that there exists a positive response of all concerned in the action taken towards prevention of corruption and reduction of financial loss to the government, he said.

Commissioner Prof Maniruzzaman Miah said that the ACC could not fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the people till now. “As an insider of the ACC, however, it does not behove me to tell you, why?”

He said, “I have read opinions of some very respectable people pointing their fingers at the government for whatever has happened or not happened here in this organisation.”

Some have also made caustic remarks about what they suppose internal squabbles of the ACC, he added.
“I do not share any of the views, but now that one year has passed by since the inception of the ACC. I think a parliamentary committee should look into the ACC’s affairs over the past one year and make their findings public in the interest of transparency,” Prof Miah said.

Commissioner Moniruddin Ahmed said though the ACC has been established, appropriate rules and organogram of the Commission have not yet been formulated. Due to lack of manpower, the Commission could not play its active role since its inception. There were none except three commissioners in the first seven months after the inception of the ACC, Moniruddin said. He said, it could be activated by attaching the former staff of the Bureau of Anti-Corruption, but the screening process was lengthened due to several causes.

The ACC Act 2004 has been enacted with a view to establishing an independent ACC on November 21. At least 10 sets of organogram have so far been prepared, but the government accepted none of them.


Corruption- another name for abuse of power
More than a year has gone by since its birth but the ACC has failed to make its presence felt either by design or default. There is no visible sign either to believe that it would start showing its teeth soon. Thus a sense of frustration has gripped the people as well as the donors following some damaging developments inside the commission itself. The three-day ‘Poverty Reduction Strategy Implementation Forum’ held in Dhaka offered an opportunity to the donors, both bilateral and multilateral, to vent their frustration and anger over inaction to combat corruption and to ask the government to take immediate actions. At the PRSIF meeting, while asking the government to do the needful in the matters of reforms, law and order, terrorism and implementation of the antipoverty plan a lot of time was spent highlighting the need for immediate actions against corrupt elements. The donors reportedly asked the government to take some very serious cases of corruption, prosecute the persons involved in those with next few weeks so that the people and the international community as well could feel that the government was serious about dealing with graft cases.

The government has been blowing hot and cold ever since the corruption issue received national and international attention. On the one hand, it has consistently tried to shrug off the Transparency International’s assessment about the extent of corruption in Bangladesh, on the other, in the face of mounting pressure from the donor countries and agencies, it has feigned to be serious about combating the vice that has been eating into the vitals of the country. After a lot of foot-dragging, the incumbent government, as part of its electoral promises, constituted an independent anti-corruption commission (ACC) in the later part of the last calendar year. But many, looking at the very composition of the commission, had expressed doubt about the government’s sincerity. They so far have proved themselves to be right.

A section of people who include civil society members and politicians tend to find the donors ‘too nosey and interfering’. But they should not have any objection to the pressure that is now being built up on the government to show some results on its promised actions against all-pervasive corruption. True and decisive actions against corrupt elements in Bangladesh have always been difficult since the network of corruption is vast and extremely strong. Amassing wealth through illegal means is the prime objective of most politicians, bureaucrats and businesses. The trio has formed an evil nexus that is very much known to everyone. That is why most incidents of corruption are either deliberately ignored or go unrecorded. It has been rather a tradition in this country to file corruption cases against political rivals soon after the change of governments. Notwithstanding the merit of such cases, the governments, irrespective of their political identities, are found to be casual in pursuing those cases. This casual approach has led the people to believe that the graft cases are politically motivated.

In spite of the pressure from the donors the incumbent government unlikely to pursue high-profile corruption cases right now. This was evident from the statement of the Bangladesh finance minister at the end of the PRSIF meeting. He said the government cannot interfere into the activities of an independent body like the ACC. Any major anti-graft action will have the potential to create serious resentment among a section of influential people both within and outside the ruling party and the party high command may not take such a risk when elections are not too far away. So, the ball goes to the court of the ACC to justify its existence as an independent anti-graft body. And it should start with a big bang. In the ultimate analysis, the government of the day stands to gain more from major anti-corruption actions by the ACC.

Transparency is must
The cabinet has recently approved the draft Public Procurement Act 2005. It is expected that the national parliament would adopt the final act in its coming session. Though the government would not admit it openly, the fact remains that the government is working on the act at the insistence of a major multilateral donor which has tagged the disbursement a part of the budgetary support credit with its adoption. Such pressure from that particular donor is nothing new in the case of government procurement. It happened earlier also. The government in 2003 framed the Public Procurement Rules at the insistence of the same donor. The proposed act would incorporate the rules with certain additions and modification.

The government has never felt the necessity of putting in place such an act in the face of massive irregularities in public procurement. Rather, an evil nexus of politicians, bureaucrats, and businesses has exploited to the full the successive governments’ deliberate indulgence to ever-increasing corruption in public procurement that is estimated to be more than $5.0 billion a year.

Since the proposed Public Procurement Act would try to ensure transparency in government procurement, it has faced covert and overt opposition from the vested interest groups in the administration and beyond. It is alleged that even some bilateral donors do not like open bidding in case of procurement and contracts. These donors on many occasions in the past had given a dam to the Public Procurement Rules 2003. They might try to do the same when the Public Procurement Act comes into force.

The proposed law, which has a total of 79 clauses, makes the publication of advertisements in newspapers 21 days before bidding mandatory. This mandatory provision might eliminate the existing irregularities in tendering process, it is believed.

But enforcement of rules might face opposition from the vested quarters as has been witnessed in the case of Public Procurement Rules 2003. According to experts, one of the main reasons for the slow implementation of the Annual Development Programmes during the last financial year had been the enforcement of the Rules. It is not that the Rules alone had slowed down the implementation of the ADPs. Rather opposition to the Rules from vested quarters was responsible for the poor implementation of the development programmes. Even some line ministries had approached the finance ministry suggesting cancellation of the Rules.

The World Bank (WB) finding that the government agencies were reluctant to go by the Public Procurement Rules suggested the government to incorporate those in a full fledged law having provisions for penal actions against its violators.

The reason for stiff covert and overt opposition to the Public Procurement Rules or a full-fledged law to this effect is understandable. The procurement system that was in vogue for decades has provided a vast scope for irregularities by a vested quarter. It could easily achieve their evils ends since the procurement procedure is highly deficient in necessary preventive measures against influence-peddling by unscrupulous politicians and bureaucrats. Factors such as inadequate advertising, poor specifications, non-disclosure of selection criteria, award of contracts by lottery and re-bidding with valid reasons have made the public procurement a breeding ground for corruption. Involvement of highly influential persons in big procurement deals has been very common. What is more surprising is that some donor countries and agencies which very often preach transparency and accountability in all matters try to push through their own business interests by passing procurement rules.

To make its procurement really transparent, the government must strengthen its e-governance programme. Each and every ministry and government agency much have its own website. In addition to publication of advertisements in leading newspapers, these organisations must put on display all the bids well ahead of the their closing dates.

It is also essential for the political party/ parties in power to restrain its/their leaders and workers at the central and district levels from muscle-flexing to get contracts bypassing normal procedures. This will not only stop irregularities but also help build good image for the ruling party/ parties among the people in general. And the donors -- multilateral or bilateral -- will also have to honour the Procurement Act and they should not insist on any special treatment.

Public procurement lacks good intentions
The cabinet has recently approved the draft Public Procurement Act 2005. It is expected that the national parliament would adopt the final act in its coming session. Though the government would not admit it openly, the fact remains that the government is working on the act at the insistence of a major multilateral donor which has tagged the disbursement a part of the budgetary support credit with its adoption. Such pressure from that particular donor is nothing new in the case of government procurement. It happened earlier also. The government in 2003 framed the Public Procurement Rules at the insistence of the same donor. The proposed act would incorporate the rules with certain additions and modification.

The government has never felt the necessity of putting in place such an act in the face of massive irregularities in public procurement. Rather, an evil nexus of politicians, bureaucrats, and businesses has exploited to the full the successive governments’ deliberate indulgence to ever-increasing corruption in public procurement that is estimated to be more than $5.0 billion a year.

Since the proposed Public Procurement Act would try to ensure transparency in government procurement, it has faced covert and overt opposition from the vested interest groups in the administration and beyond. It is alleged that even some bilateral donors do not like open bidding in case of procurement and contracts. These donors on many occasions in the past had given a dam to the Public Procurement Rules 2003. They might try to do the same when the Public Procurement Act comes into force.

The proposed law, which has a total of 79 clauses, makes the publication of advertisements in newspapers 21 days before bidding mandatory. This mandatory provision might eliminate the existing irregularities in tendering process, it is believed.

But enforcement of rules might face opposition from the vested quarters as has been witnessed in the case of Public Procurement Rules 2003. According to experts, one of the main reasons for the slow implementation of the Annual Development Programmes during the last financial year had been the enforcement of the Rules. It is not that the Rules alone had slowed down the implementation of the ADPs. Rather opposition to the Rules from vested quarters was responsible for the poor implementation of the development programmes. Even some line ministries had approached the finance ministry suggesting cancellation of the Rules.

The World Bank (WB) finding that the government agencies were reluctant to go by the Public Procurement Rules suggested the government to incorporate those in a full fledged law having provisions for penal actions against its violators.

The reason for stiff covert and overt opposition to the Public Procurement Rules or a full-fledged law to this effect is understandable. The procurement system that was in vogue for decades has provided a vast scope for irregularities by a vested quarter. It could easily achieve their evils ends since the procurement procedure is highly deficient in necessary preventive measures against influence-peddling by unscrupulous politicians and bureaucrats. Factors such as inadequate advertising, poor specifications, non-disclosure of selection criteria, award of contracts by lottery and re-bidding with valid reasons have made the public procurement a breeding ground for corruption. Involvement of highly influential persons in big procurement deals has been very common. What is more surprising is that some donor countries and agencies which very often preach transparency and accountability in all matters try to push through their own business interests by passing procurement rules.

To make its procurement really transparent, the government must strengthen its e-governance programme. Each and every ministry and government agency much have its own website. In addition to publication of advertisements in leading newspapers, these organisations must put on display all the bids well ahead of the their closing dates.

It is also essential for the political party/ parties in power to restrain its/their leaders and workers at the central and district levels from muscle-flexing to get contracts bypassing normal procedures. This will not only stop irregularities but also help build good image for the ruling party/ parties among the people in general. And the donors -- multilateral or bilateral -- will also have to honour the Procurement Act and they should not insist on any special treatment