COVID19 and Pandemic of Corruption!
Dr. A.K. Enamul Haque


Corruption all around. We can't get rid of it even after hundreds of attempts. Seeing the number of thieves going to give rice to the poor people, I thought like everyone else, the leaders are corrupt. Corruption is written in the character of politicians. But this was not the case, I was corrected when the Prime Minister said in a meeting, ‘We need to find out who supplied these masks.’ Politicians gave nine kg of rice instead of 10 kg, one kg was taken away. How about government employees? However, there is always an explanation for everything. If you insult someone, you will find an explanation. Robbery has an explanation too. Don't forget, Romena Afaz's 'Dasyu Banahur' or India's 'Phulan Devi' were created from the interpretation of these characters.

So this time there was no lack of explanation. The concerned government department informed that the delivery was a mistake and we are returning them! The company has apologized for the mistake. Those who supplied the masks gave their explanation too!  It is more beautiful! One of their employees by mistake supplied the masks which were 'sample' products? I thought that the 'sample' is made with care to attract buyers.  Didn't know that 'samples' are made badly! and yet 20 thousand samples! Do you believe the story? I don't. 

I didn’t know whether I should be surprised or disappointed when I saw an official data in the third week of April. I saw the notification from the Ministry of Information in a scroll played on TV. 'The government has already distributed three crore packets of rice and pulses in the country to the poor. Opposition parties are politicizing relief.' We should be happy to see the news because there are a total of 40 million families in Bangladesh. So if 30 million families are given food aid in a month, then everyone except you and I should get a packet (I included you, because those who will read this column, I don't think you will stand in queue now for a packet). Think about it. If the government have already provided food to 30 million families, then why should we help Vidyananda [a voluntary organization]? Do they need to work? Imagine for a second, if the information is true, then think about how big the amount of theft is. None of the poor families I know have received a packet yet. Do you think government gave 5-10 packets to each family? I don't think so.

Once I went to Kulaura in Sylhet for a research work. While talking, I asked the local Upazila Health Officer about the medicine, as people complained that they had never seen the medicine for free. Everything has to be bought. They complained that all the medicines were stolen. In answer to our question, the doctor said, look, my annual budget is so much money, this hospital is made for about four lakh families. Dividing the annual budget by the population, I get 16 taka per person per year. Now tell me, how can I show whom I gave free medicine? None of the people who talked to you deserved to get free medicine, so they didn't get it for good reason. We only give free medicine to the poorest patients. Not everyone. Arguably. I realized that we had no idea how low the government allocation in the health sector is.

I was talking about corruption. The story is not over and corruption will never end. I remembered a story. Once a king was told by his subjects that one of his servants was very corrupt. The king is being discredited. When the king heard this, he transferred him to a different department.  A few days later the same complaint came from there. The king transferred him again. But the allegations kept coming. The king was not getting along with the corrupt employee. What do you think can be done? He said to him, you don't have to do anything from tomorrow. Just sit on the beach and count the waves. Let me know every day how many waves come ashore. The king thought that he has given him the final punishment. No more corruption! Now I want to see how he takes bribe? A few days later the fishermen came to the King. Your Excellency, we are being harassed by your employee and are paying him bribes. It is not possible anymore. Why? Because he doesn't allow us to run the boat because it disturbs him in counting your waves! Understand. Transfer is not a solution.  Moreover, if politicians go to jail for corruption and government employees are transferred for their corruption, it is not a fair justice!

Nowadays it has become difficult to catch corruption. According to my business friends, the money paid for corruption has to be sent abroad to their families [known as Begampara] abroad. The families of many government employees are now either foreign nationals or living abroad permanently. As such it is the responsibility of the businesses in Bangladesh to send them a monthly honorarium regularly. So when evidences of corruption are found in the recovered sacks of rice, when it is found under a mattress or a pillow, in order to find evidences of modern corruption, one has to find out where the wife and children live.

Needless to say, we will continue our efforts to stop corruption. Many steps have been taken. One of the main tasks of the government will be to eradicate corruption as we are in a very difficult economic situation due to COVID19. The people will not forgive the failure of the government in this case.

Many of us think that western countries are free from corruption. Historically, western countries have come to our continent the aid corruption. They are mature and know how to steal or plunder the wealth of another country and bring it to their country. Of course, their motives for corruption are different. They want to strengthen their country's economy through corruption! So you see the western countries are still the sanctuary of all the corrupt people of the world. You will see that the western world will force us to introduce new rules on various pretexts, which can easily lead to money laundering from our country. For example, Bangladesh Bank has introduced a Financial Transactions Act. According to this law, you will have to write down the amount of money you expect to withdraw in a month from your Bank account at the time of opening the account. This ridiculous rule can only be introduced in a country like ours. Depositing my money in the bank benefits the country. It can be invested. As long as, it was in my pocket, I was not accountable to anyone. Now I have to say everything while opening a bank account! How many times a month I will deposit money, how many times I will withdraw, to whom I will give, who will give money to me — all these questions have to be answerd now. As if I'm a fortune teller! We had a rule that money from savings deposits cannot be withdrawn more than twice a week. Why are the extra rules?

There are more. If you withdraw more than five lakh [5,00,000] taka using a bank transaction, it has to be reported to Bangladesh Bank. Whatever is the reason for this, these rules will discourage an average person from coming to the bank. Those who are corrupt already know the rule. So they will transact using cash.  They know that there can be danger in following the rules and regulations of the bank. So they will send cash money abroad anonymously. Where this money goes? In the banks of the western countries, which forced us to introduce such a draconian rule. When foreign banks accept crores of taka, why don't they have the same rule in their country? According to an estimate, at least 70 thousand crore [crore=1,00,00,000] taka go abroad in a year from Bangladesh.

In summary, we should be careful on the advice of the western countries. We should introduce rules in the interest of our country and for our people. When it came to the case of a Corona detection Kit (discovered by a scientist) in Bangladesh, the drug authorities spoke about the rules of the CDC. Shame on you. Who is this CDC? Are we still being ruled by foreigners. Where are our rules? If the rules of CDC are the rules of this country, then do we need a drug authority?  We should introduce rules based on our needs, for our country, for our people. Why are you [drug authority] trivializing yourself?  Why the colonial mentality in the country still persists after so many years of independence? Get rid of this attitude. Only then we will be able to stand tall on earth.

That's what I was saying. We sometime decorate ourselves as Sufis [mystic travelers] for the sake of others. An easy way to eliminate corruption is to keep written records of all transactions that we do. It is not possible when transactions are made in cash.  So I think new rules should be introduced on how to reduce use of cash in our daily transactions, and how to increase transactions through banks and financial instruments. Our current rules are in favor of maintaining cash transactions. We don't want people to come to the bank. I suggest just the opposite. For example, if the government reduces all cash-based transactions or if Bangladesh Bank introduces e-money, then all transactions will be done through mobile bank, bKash, Rocket or any such app. Then a record of who gave how much money to whom can be seen. If someone is accused of corruption or if you bribe someone (when you don't have cash), then you will know exactly who sent the money to whom and from where. Not only that, how much revenue was earned by a business, how much money they spent, it will also be recorded. It will be difficult to do corruption but not impossible. Ordinary people don't have to worry about this. At the same time it will be easier for the government to collect business VAT. It can even be such that the VAT rate can even be reduced. We have to keep in mind that the only means of corruption in the country is cash transactions. If the government's tax revenue does not increase at this time then there is a possibility that the economy may go bankrupt in the future. At the same time, if there is no note, there will be no possibility of corona transmission from money. You do not know, how much money or from whose hand it has entered into your pocket! Does it contain corona germs?

When most government employees or politicians in the country are still honest, there is no reason to keep the cash transaction rules in place to help a few corrupt people. The technology is there now. Under the new rules, petty corruption will go down to almost zero and it will help the general public to return to the banking system. However, in order to introduce this rule, the government has to streamline the financial system and the central bank. By the way, this week China has introduced e-money instead of cash transactions in several of its major cities.

[Professor of Economics, East West University and Director, Asian Center for Development]