International Anti-Corruption Day 2023

“Together Against Corruption”

Concept Note

Bangladesh ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) on February 27, 2007, a process in which TIB played a significant role. Recently, TIB published a review report titled "Progress in Implementing Chapters II and V of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in Bangladesh." According to the report, despite having a strong legal framework, Bangladesh lags behind in fulfilling its commitments under the convention due to a lack of effective measures, capacity, coordination, and political will. Furthermore, political influence, a lack of goodwill and efficiency within relevant institutions, allegations of political and executive interference in the judiciary, and the absence of an effective accountability framework have prevented Bangladesh from meeting its anti-corruption pledges.

Corruption has virtually become institutionalized due to the lack of transparency and accountability at all levels, which is tarnishing the country's socio-economic achievements. In the "Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2022" published by Transparency International (TI), Bangladesh scored only 25: significantly lower than the global average of 43. The country has maintained the second-lowest position in South Asia for the past decade. Meanwhile, the results of TIB's National Household Survey 2021 reveal that 70.9% of households in the country have fallen victim to corruption. It is concerning that more than 72% of respondents who were forced to pay bribes felt that obtaining services without bribery is impossible. This indicates that the institutionalization of corruption in service sectors continues, which has far-reaching consequences for future generations. Approximately 89% of the youth believe that corruption is negatively impacting their lives.

In addition, uncontrolled money laundering has placed the entire national economy under severe pressure. According to a report by Global Financial Integrity, 8.27 billion US dollars are laundered abroad annually under the guise of foreign trade. In contrast, the country had to exert immense effort to secure a loan of only 4 billion dollars from the IMF to mitigate the foreign exchange crisis. Furthermore, the culture of defaulting on loans, often taken under various pretexts or anonymous identities, is so pervasive that the banking sector sets new records of irregularities every year. According to the latest data from Bangladesh Bank, total defaulted loans reached 156,039 crore BDT by June 2023, accounting for 10.11% of total disbursed loans. Although the laundering of loan funds through hundi and other channels has become increasingly visible, effective remedies are not being implemented. There is a noticeable absence of firm political leadership or efforts to set exemplary standards to prevent these occurrences.

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