Iftekharuzzaman is the executive director of the Bangladesh chapter of Transparency International (TIB). In a recent interview with Prothom Alo, he spoke about the widespread corruption in Bangladesh, the nature of corruption, the government and the state’s role, the competence and commitment of the Anti-Corruption Commission, political corruption and more.
There are two types of corruption, observed Iftekharuzzaman. The first is direct corruption like taking bribes. The second is corruption in collusion with others where all parties benefit.
The Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) chief was responding to a question concerning the recent sensational news about two brothers in Faridpur who had managed to grab around 2,500 bighas of land in seven years had bank transactions of over Tk 30 billion (Tk 3000 crore). Yet the land was registered and the bank transactions were ostensibly within legal bounds. How had they continued in their corruption for long, only recently being arrested?
Iftekharuzzaman pointed out that others had aided and abetted the two brothers in illegally amassing their wealth, grabbing land and registering it in their own names. The local administration, local political leaders, influential persons, the registration authorities, members of the law enforcement, all had benefitted from these dealings. So it was natural that these misdemeanours would be kept under covers. The two brothers' criminal activities were not isolated incidents. This was just a reflection of the corruption being carried out jointly by several quarters.
prevent news of corruption leaking out rather than taking action against corruption
-adapted from prothomalo*
Corruption is killing the development of our country....