One cannot be completely free of doubt about the effectiveness of International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s advice to the government on collecting wealth statements from public servants every year and updating them regularly to reduce high levels of corruption.
The IMF, the World Bank or any other international organisation giving advice on reducing corruption in Bangladesh is not at all a pleasant experience for the government. If the government had taken stern and effective measures against corruption on its own, there would be no need for this sort of advice.
Notably, the issue of collecting wealth statements from the government employees had already been mentioned in the Government Servants Rules drawn back in 1979. According to section no. 12 and 13 of the law, government servants have been directed to submit documents of acquiring and selling immovable properties as well as the wealth statement.
In fact, it also mentions about taking government’s approval for even the purchase and sales of any property including land plots, houses or flats. Plus, they are supposed to mention the source of their money in case of purchasing property and the price of the property in case of selling.
But, the rules are there only on paper. Only a tiny portion of the 1.5 million (15 lakh) government employees there are in the country actually do submit their wealth statements. Many had submitted their wealth statement during the reign of the military-backed caretaker government only because it was strictly enforced then.
While, the Awami League government that has announced zero tolerance against corruption has been in power for fifteen and a half years at a stretch, they haven’t collected wealth statements from the government employees. They didn’t even feel the need to make public representatives’ wealth statements public as promised in their election manifesto.
From seeing the parliament members’ vocal stand against corruption of the government employees during the ongoing national parliament session it seems like they were absorbed in a state of slumber till now. And, suddenly waking up from their sleep they saw that the public servants have ‘destroyed’ the country.
Whenever the policymakers were questioned on this topic, they have skillfully avoided that. Moreover, the government employees have become even more defiant because of the rule of taking approval from superior authorities when it comes to filing cases against public servants.
That’s the reason we see the rise of Benaizirs and Matiurs in public administration even after all the scandals about Basic Bank, Hallmark as well as the 'pillow' and 'curtain' fiasco. The facts and figures that have surfaced in the mainstream media and on the social media have mentioned many other names of current and former bureaucrats of subordinate or superior levels.
According to reports published in different newspapers, as many as 2,215 files are currently being investigated by the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC). Out of them, the files of fifty bureaucrats and at least 20 police officers including current and former ones have been on hold for a long time.
We find the ACC take some actions only when there’s a major incident. But with time everything goes back to the way it was before. Even an infamous corrupt persons like Matiur has received ‘immaculate’ certificates four times from the ACC.
From seeing the parliament members’ vocal stand against corruption of the government employees during the ongoing national parliament session it seems like they were absorbed in a state of slumber till now. And, suddenly waking up from their sleep they saw that the public servants have ‘destroyed’ the country.
If there was even minimum rule of law in the country, corruption could not have spread like this to every nook and cranny of the administration. Even there are allegations that the politicians also have a role behind the expansion of corruption on bureaucrats’ parts. No matter how much the government speaks about zero tolerance against corruption, there’s no reflection of that in their actions.
While the government has long been warned about corruption from various quarters including the media, the policy makers did not pay any heed to them. If they come to their senses, even from taking IMF’s advice, the country will be saved at least. Otherwise, the Bangladesh we achieved through the liberation war will indeed be occupied by ‘sycophants’ in Bangabandhu’s words.