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| Nafis Chowdhury |
Corruption is an endemic that has
been persistent in Bangladesh for the 53 years of its independence. The impact
of corruption is so widespread that it has been normalized by many, viewing it
as a routine activity or culture rather than a problem to the state. Where the
international community is urging to integrate drastic measures to combat the
stigma of seeing corruption as a “culture”, Bangladesh is far from addressing
such issues in a practical manner. The curse of corruption has impacted every
sector of Bangladesh, including the ones of infrastructure development.
According to a recent report by Transparency International Bangladesh(TIB), in
the last 15 years- an estimate of 50835 cr BDT was misappropriated in 48
development projects, which is 40% of the whole budget estimated for the same.
These statistics raise the inevitable question- what causes such a crisis? In
this article, the author explores the possible causes that lead to such a
monumental crisis.
According to the Corruption Perception
Index 2023
of the Transparency International, Bangladesh ranked 149th in 180 countries
around the world- with a rating of 24 out of 100. The complexities within the
existing laws and regulations, coupled with the lack of implementation creates
a major drawback against combating this issue. In the case of infrastructure
development, Bangladesh has adequate laws. Which in most cases, should guide an
adequate result to such development projects. In particular, the Public Procurement
Act(PPA) 2006 provides provisions to conduct these development projects
in a transparent manner. S.4 of the Act empowers PPA to override any existing
law in the country. S.7(3)(a) obliges the proposal evaluation committee to sign
a declaration of impartiality before evaluating the tender offers or proposals
for these projects. S.9 of the PPA ensures that the government makes these
procurement related documents and information accessible to the general public.
Section 29-30 of the act empowers the public with the right to complain to the
administrative authorities responsible for procurement upon any suffering or
loss caused to a person due to the failure of complying with this act. This is
a clear indication that the laws of Bangladesh, at least the substantive ones-
are well aligned with the idea of transparency and accountability in public
procurement sectors.
However, the existing laws and
policies are not adequately implemented- particularly in the infrastructure
development projects. Some of the policies in place do not completely align
with the acts provided within the legislation. The previous government had
implemented the “Guidelines for the
Formulation, Processing, Approval and Amendment of Development Projects of
Public Sector 2022”, which do not require any feasibility assessment for
projects under the budget of 25 cr BDT. The lack of feasibility assessment
creates a significant exposure of misappropriation of funds dedicated to such
development projects. Other than that, in cases which the policies do align
with the existing laws, the lack of implementation undermines the potential
benefits of it. In the aforementioned policy, it is clearly stated that
investing in underdeveloped areas is a priority for the government but barely
any progress has been made in order to implement it. Rather, the areas in which
the important personnel of the government reside have seen an unprecedented
amount of projects in comparison to the rest. Similar irregularities are seen
with other policies. “Rules to Regulate the
Construction of Infrastructure in Inland Waterways and Foreshore, 2010” has failed to oblige the
authorities to assess the quality of materials that are used within such
projects, resulting in a requirement of significant funds for repairing. The
use of substandard materials is a clear violation of the regulation, but there
is no accountability against such actions.
These regulations further fail to
coherently align all the stakeholders in a development project. The apex
organizations, dedicated to create policies for the project, do not collaborate
with the other stakeholders and vice versa. Which creates a significant risk of
misappropriation of funds and materials, fostering an environment suitable for
systematic corruption. Furthermore, sufficient audits are not conducted within
these projects on a regular basis. In fact- incidents of corruption regularly
take place within such audits. In addition to that, the lack of supervision by
the responsible authorities play a major role in such misconduct. According to
a recent report by Transparency
International Bangladesh(TIB), The Roads and Highway Development(RHD) and Implementation
Monitoring and Evaluation Division(IMED) do not evaluate these projects in a
regular manner. Due to the lack of supervision and collaboration between the
stakeholders, cases of nepotism, favoritism, and political influence have
become a normal practice within infrastructure development projects. Starting
from the tender offers, where impartiality is a must- the private contractors,
politicians and the other parties involved have formed syndicates to create a
monopoly for granting such works to specific individuals only. Cases of bribery
regularly take place while granting these work orders.
The lack of implementation of the
policies, insufficient coherence with the domestic legislation, influence of
politicians and high-end officials and syndicate culture are the major
contributing factors to such systematic corruption in this particular sector.
To overcome such issues, the policies must be reformed in a manner which
increases transparency and accountability for all stakeholders involved.
Preventing irregularities, personal interests and nepotism must be put under
microscope via regular supervision by RHD and IMED. Moreover, Audits must be
conducted in an efficient manner. For that matter, manpower and technical
support for the stakeholders should be increased. In addition, all this
information related to infrastructure development must be made accessible to
the public. And last but not the least, previous works by private contractors
must be made available to the public and thoroughly reviewed before accepting a
proposal or a tender offer. The standard of transparency and accountability
must be significantly strengthened to ensure effective management and oversight
of the allocated funds for such projects.
About author:
Nafis Chowdhury is
currently working as a Junior Associate at Tahmidur Remura Wahid| TRW Law Firm.
He completed his LL.B honor’s from BRAC University. His areas of interest are
Constitutional Law, Anti-Corruption Law and Human Rights.