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Tk 225cr lost to graft in Jul-Dec 2003

Reports TIB; communications sector tops list

Staff Correspondent
The government lost Tk 225 crore in just 253 out of a total 1,115 corruption incidents reported by newspapers in the last half of 2003, with the communications sector topping the graft-list, according to the Corruption Database Report of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) released yesterday.
The Berlin-based transparency
watchdog observed that the masses are the worst victims of corruption, to prevent which it sought willingness of all political quarters.
The TIB underscored die needs for forming an effective and independent anti-corruption commission, prompt action against corrupt officials and instituting an ombudsman to eradicate the vice.
Noted economist and TYeasurer of TIB Board of Trustees Prof Muzaffer Ahmed presented the report, with TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman present, among others, at a news conference at the Jatiya Press Club and answered media queries.
The report based on a database developed by monitoring 17 national and six regional dailies of July to December last year said, of the Tk 225-crore loss, 47 percent was government money, 41.9 percenr of private sec tor, 2.8 percent of non-government organisations and 3.6 percent of donor agencies.
The highest amount, or 32.8 percent, of financial corruption was detected in the communications sector, the second highest or 18.8 percent in food sector and the third highest, 16.3 percent, in direct and Indirect taxes.
In terms of number of corruption incidents, police topped the list accounting for 15.18 percent, followed by local government sector with 12 percent, education sector with 10.4 percent and health and family planning sector with 10.1 -avatnsiaav
Substantial corruption was also found in finance, home affairs (excluding police), and energy and mineral resources sector.
"The prevalence of financial corruption in private services sector and political parties were also significant," the report said.
The masses are the worst victims of corruption, bearing 42.3 percent brunt of it, as a section of corrupt officials and employees directly extract money from them.
The government is the second most affected by corruption, the report said, adding the government was the primary victim of one-third of the monitored incidents. Students and businessmen also feature prominently among the primary victims.
Among the secondary victims of corruption are general citizens, the government, farmers and businesses.
Of the total 1,394 persons the study found to be involved in corruption, 67.1 percent are officers and employees of government and different autonomous bodies, 25.2 percent belong to NGOs and 7.7 percent are elected people's representatives.
Actions were taken against only
31.4 percent of the reported incidents. The actions include informing the authorities concerned about 9.3 percent of the incidents, lodging lawsuits against 7.7 percent and investigating 4.4 percent.
Among the cities, the capital was found as the most corruption-prone, with Ramna coming up at the top once again among the metropolitan areas with a total of 58 corruption incidents.
Among the districts, Dhaka topped the list with 17.4 percent corruption cases, followed by Chittagong with 8.8 percent. The least number of corruption incidents were reported in Nawabganj and Shariyatpur districts.
The TIB study found male officials to be generally much more corrupt than the females. About 50 percent men were found involved in corruption, while women accounted for 2.6 percent. The gender of the remaining 47.4 percent corrupt officials could not be learnt.
Among the ranks, high officials
JOTllLWJjfmflW conijpt^ witfi|2l.g,percentip^Jonts. than their subordinates' accounting for 15.4 percent. Clerks were involved in 6.8 percent grafts.
According to the study, government officials and employees tend to serve personal interests by misusing and abusing their authority, which accounted for 38.2 percent grafts reported in the 23 newspapers. Bribery, embezzlement, extortion and cheating are some dominant modes of their corruption.
On an average, the newspapers published 174.3 incidents of corruption a month. The TIB study team cross-checked 15 percent of the newspaper reports, in which about 78.5 percent reporters were able to produce documents in support of their reports, while 5.3 percent could not produce any.
On validity of reported corruption cases, 49.4 percent officials admitted them right away, while 22.6 said the reports were mostly correct, about 3.3 percent said some facts were correct, while 22.4 percent claimed them to be untrue, and the rest 2.3 percent declined to comment.