Essay on Political corruption
Corruption by sectors:
Corruption in Bangladesh has become an ongoing institution whose have Bangladesh has found herself among them in the most corrupted countries in the world. There are so many sectors where occurs in the corruption in Bangladesh. Every sector in Bangladesh has occurred the corruption in Bangladesh such as the political sector, government sector, public service, tax administration, public judiciary, business sector, transportation sector, land administration and taxation sector etc. Now briefly describe those:
Political sectors:
Basically political corruption has been occurred by the government office or their areas because of fulfilling their personal gain. Bribery, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence pending, gift and embezzlement those kinds of corruption occur in the political sector. It may indulge the criminal Enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking and so many things. Government power is used by the personal purpose and gain personal choice, is also called political corruption.
Corruption may be defined in many ways. Such as, in a simple context, receiving any gift or price while performing or working for government or representative of the government is considered as an unethical task. Any free gift might be given to get some advantage from the government officers.
Institutional corruption is another form of political corruption. It is different from bribery and personal gain. When someone has been provided financial aids to the government officers these may conflict the goal of the institution.
Business sectors:
Many companies in Bangladesh have been reported to be subjected to expensive and useless licenses and permit requirements. Businessman told that corruption was the largest Hindered to doing business in Bangladesh. Business people have to pay a huge amount of bribe or annual tax to government officers for running a business smoothly. Bribes have to pay 48% of the companies and most of the firm seeking a license for getting the bribes from those companies, more than 55% of construction permits, 77%of import licenses, 56% of water connection arrangement and 48% of electricity connection arrangement linking bribes.
Companies have to pay a huge amount of money to get signed in the contract. Most of the public contract or agreements are often taken place corruption in Bangladesh. Approximately 48% of companies’ executives’ officers said that they have to pay “gift” to sign in the contracts. Basically this “gift” value is the average value of the contract value 3%.
The various international organizations provided funds to build up the Padma Multilateral Purpose Bridge near Dhaka in 2011. After that World Bank said that in 2012 a high-level corruption conspiracy among politicians, businessmen, and private individuals is linked with bribes.
Medical sectors:
Every sector in Bangladesh’s corruption is prevalent. Healthcare is not except them. The price of the medical equipment is miss-invoicing to pretending to be doctors, many public resources have been manipulated for personal gain. This types of corruption tend to reduce the effectiveness of government spending on medical equipment in Bangladesh. That’s why the quality of medical treatment is too much lower.
The impact of corruption in the medical sectors is badly harmed by the country as well as anti-social activities. In the corruption in the medical sector, people have suffered in many ways. General people are basically sufferings from this. They don’t get proper treatment in the legal price. Although they provide a higher amount, they get a lower quality of treatment.
Tax Administration sectors:
There are huge corruption in tax administration in Bangladesh. If we compare this sector to the other countries sector we can see there is a lot of corruption in Bangladesh. The tax collectors take a low tax rate from the company or people for their personal benefits. Normally people must give their tax to the governments on the basis of their income. But they do not pay their right amount of tax to the governments by using these types of people who are directly involved to this corruption sector.
Transportation sectors:
Transportation is one of the biggest corrupt sectors in Bangladesh. Normally in Dhaka city, we see a lot of vehicles but most of these are not have a road permit. The owners of these transportations pay a huge amount to the government’s employee for getting permission. Not only has the transportation the drivers are also paid the BRTC to get the license. If anyone wants to get a driving license from the BRTC, there are some exams or process and this process takes normally 6/7 months but the people who are directly or indirectly involve to these corrupted sectors give the license within 2/3 months without any exams or practical’s. These people are directly wanting the money otherwise they are disagreeing to sign or give the permissions. If we think about our traffic rules 60% of peoples who never know the rules or never follow the rules of traffic. If the traffic police check them then they pay money and again break the rules. There are some punishments on road accidents but by paying the money the driver never knows the punishments. For these reasons every year, accidents are increasing. There is another reason that is most of the driver are addicted, they take drugs to wake up at night when they drive. Most of the drivers are uneducated but there is a rule to get the licenses, minimum have an education qualification but by paying a huge amount of money they can easily manage it.
Government sectors:
Government offices in Bangladesh are generally corrupted. Many officials take their salaries without accurate works. There are many responsibilities but the government employees do not take it seriously. There is a low rate of salary to the government’s employees that are not sufficient to maintain their family. For these low rate salaries they choice the different ways to income more, then they started to make money from the general people by doing any activities. Normally the government should pay enough money that they can lead their life easily without taking any bad activities. Besides these, the government’s people take a huge time to start their works, if the working time starts at 9am they normally go to the office at 10.30 am and come back to home when they want. Many employees spoil the government assets or sometimes they sell it to the market for a little amount of money. These types of activities affect on society every day. Day by day these types of corruption occur in everywhere.
Education sectors:
Education is the fundamental right of any human. Most of the people of our country are uneducated. Every year there is a budget for education sectors. Governments set a fixed percentage of budgets for this sector. Now a day normally 50% of these budgets are taken by the corrupted people. There is a lot of budget for education but there is not enough improvement in education sectors. Every year the passing rate or percentage of education increases but the actual rate does not increase. People are trying to pass the examination by getting a question or try to follow the illegal way to do better results. Without these, there is a budget for build school in every area, but these are not done for the corrupted people who always find a profit in any deals.
Agriculture sectors:
In Bangladesh, Agriculture is the biggest source of income. Every year 50%/60% of income is collected by this sector. But there are a lot of corrupt people who are every day takes 10%/12% of this income. Governments set many people to work in different sectors. People who generally see the agriculture sectors have an opportunity to take advantage of the budget. The farmers have a right to know the process of digital technologies and others. There are some people who have a duty to show the works free but the employee do not follow their duty properly. They take extra fees from the farmers by giving these types of ideas. The governments give the farmers medicine-free but the employee takes money for their personal benefits. If we see the other countries’ agriculture system they are enough technology to have a lot of opportunities to inspire other people to do the work. But in our country for these corrupted people, farmers are showing the bad impression to do cultivate the land. They cultivate the land but do not get their actual profit from these. If the governments take a step against the corrupted people then these types of sectors will improve in the future.
Effects of corruption
Corruption cannot bring any good for our ethics. Peoples cannot trust their governments, teachers, and other persons. So a communication or expectation gap occurs. Many times people fell into pressure whether they are involved in it or not. Some effects are shown below:
- Social effects: Corruption is a social crime. Many years have passed since it couldn’t solve. Socially it is hated and they tried to avoid. But with some unexpected reason, it can’t be removed.
- Lack of Belief: Corruption of any kind has many more dimensions and causes many evils and damages to ethics. It hurts most poor people disproportionally. People do not believe their government, administrations all time.
- Expensive: Bribery systems are not always sustainable to the people. An expectation gap occurs and sometimes victims cannot get proper justice. For this reason many times people many times do not believe the ways.
- Injustice: By corruption many times people cannot get the proper justice.
Anti-corruption movement in Bangladesh
Corruption is considered as one of the most sensitive and alarming problems in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, we have got a good position in the rank of corrupt countries in the world. We can find corruption in every sector of the country.
But days are changing. Different conscious-minded of people or groups are taking various kinds of steps or movements against corruption. They are trying to organize several ethical practice seminars or movements. It is believed that corruption cannot be removed just by restrictions and regulations. Ethical practices and consciousness is a must to reduce corruption.
So just like different countries, the people of Bangladesh are also starting to take various movements against corruption. Some of the most significant movements are briefly described below :
Movements taken by TIB: Transparency International is a nonprofit, non-government organization situated in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1993. This organization takes several measures to make people conscious of corruption and reduce different criminal activities arising from it. The Bangladeshi branch of TI is called the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB). This organization has the same motive just like the initial one. Different social movements are taken by TIB to take a step against corruption.
TIB has also a wing which is called YES (Youth Engagement and Support). Along with this wing, TIB organizes different social information programs, seminars or activities to make the youth more conscious and anti-corruption minded. Members from the central office of Berlin also join these activities.
Anti-Corruption Day Observed: December 9th is known as the International Anti-Corruption Day. Most of the countries in the whole world observe this day through various social anti-corruption activities. Various social groups or organizations observe this day through several activities like seminars, rallies, anti-corruption theatres, and so on. These activities are taken by thousands of people in Bangladesh including students, business persons, professionals, etc.
Activities of ACC: Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is the sole government organization established to stand against corruption. The main activity of ACC is to investigate suspicious groups or people if they are connected to any kind of unlawful activity. After investigation, if they are proved really guilty ACC takes necessary steps for their proper punishment. ACC had the authority to take measures against any kind of person or organization. But after a new amendment in their constitution ACC has to get the permission of the government to take actions against some significant categories of people. That’s why nowadays ACC has become almost an ineffective entity. But however, it is still the highly reputed anti-corruption organization of this country. Besides the main actions, ACC organizes various anti-corruption training, social movements.
Student’s movement against corrupted quota system: The reform quota movement is considered as the biggest student’s movement of the decade in Bangladesh. This huge protest stood against the unequal and corrupt quota system in public service jobs. In this country BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) is considered as the most prestigious job sector. It is the dream of most of the students in Bangladesh. But in this vital job sector, there was a surprising and illogical quota system. According to the past constitution, almost 55% of the applicants were being selected from quota holders. And the remaining 45% was for the general students. And there was also a huge impact of corruption and lobbying in selecting those participants. To stand against this inequality the university students of Bangladesh stood with a huge protest movement in 2018. Students of almost every university of this country were connected with this movement. There were several clashes between the police and the students in almost every university. A huge number of students got injured and arrested. But nothing can stand against a noble movement. The government finally considered the demands of the students.
These are the basic ongoing and recent movements against corruption in Bangladesh. There are also various short and minor activities taken by different small agencies or group of students to create awareness and ethical practices
Conclusion:
According to the discussion above we can understand that it is high time to stand against corruption. It has become a cancer of society. No development or progress can be made if there is a huge amount of corruption in every sector. So we cannot but remove corruption as soon as we can. But this problem cannot be solved instantly. Social awareness and consciousness programs should be done more practically and effectively. The government and non-government anti-corruption organizations should be upgraded. Morality and ethical behavior should be learned and practiced from the family starting at a child’s age. If we can teach our children about these morality and ethics our future country and generation will not have to face this huge amount of corruption.
In short, to diminish corruption from society we have to start changing ourselves.
