Bangladesh shows progress in corruption perception index

FE Report

Bangladesh is one of the highest achievers in corruption perception index (CPI) as it ranked 139th out of 180 countries, improving from its last year's position at 147th.

Transparency International, Bangladesh revealed the information Tuesday at the launching ceremony of Corruption Perception Index 2009 prepared by Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) and released worldwide.

"It is a quantum leap as the country advanced by 0.3 percentage point in one year from 2.1 point to 2.4 point in 0-10 scale," said Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of TI,B.

New Zealand ranked first followed by Denmark, Singapore and Sweden whereas Somalia is the most corrupt country with Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan and Iraq being the bottom four countries.

The index ranks countries in terms of degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians.

Former chairman of TI,B Mozaffer Ahmed said the country started with 0.3 points and it reached to 2.4 points, which is a good achievement.

The country was placed at the bottom of the list for the fifth successive years from 2001 to 2005.

The TI analysed 2008 and 2009 data on corruption in public and political sectors and the data were collected from seven global organisations including World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Economic Intelligence Unit.

The perception of the people was positive as in 2008 the government initiated drive against corruption and institutional reforms, said M Hafiz Uddin Khan, chairman of TI,B.

"In 2009, the election commitment of Awami League government against corruption, continuation of institutional reforms, formation of parliamentary standing committees and information commission has kept the perception positive," he explained.

Professor Mozaffer said the main challenges for the government are to keep the perception positive in the coming years.

"The amendment in public procurement act, the presidential pardon of sentences against Shahadab Akbar, son of deputy leader of parliament Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, inactive information commission and non-transparency in public sector will have negative impact in next year's index," he cautioned.

Mr Iftekharuzzaman said corruption is a global problem and fiscal stimulus packages and major public investment carry corruption risks.

"Corruption continues to thrive where there is secrecy and conflict-prone areas as many unstable countries, plagued by long-term conflicts are at the bottom of the CPI," he said.

In Bangladesh, sustainable improvement will depend on strengthening different institutions including parliament, Anti-Corruption Commission, Election Commission, Information Commission, judiciary, law enforcement agencies, public sector and Human Rights Commission, he added.

The corruption report said donors and investors must be helped and help themselves for building and strengthening institutions.

"The G20 must keep its commitments to fighting corruption a part of the solutions to sustainable economic growth and must bring civil society views into the process," the report said.

The best performers in 2009 are Bangladesh, Belarus, Guetamala, Lithunia, Moldova, Montenegor, Poland, Syria and Tonga and the worst performers are Bahrain, Greece, Iran, Malaysia, Malta and Slovakia.

In South Asia, Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives are ahead of Bangladesh and Dhaka and Islamabad are placed in the same position.

However, scores of Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives were downgraded and India remained constant for the year.

The report said that 80 countries out of 180 scored 3 or less, which means corruption is rampant in those countries.

The situation worsened globally in 2009 as the number of countries scored below 3 were 72 last year.