Nearly 32 per cent of the citizens who sought public services in the past year have reported experiencing bribery and corruption.
In other words, they had to obtain these services by paying bribes or through corruption. On average, one in every three people had to pay bribes.
This findings came up in the Citizen Perception Survey (CPS) conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The findings were presented at a press conference held at the statistics building in Agargaon area of the capital today, Thursday. As many as 84,807 men and women from 45,888 households participated in the survey conducted in February.
According to the BBS survey, the highest rate of bribery and corruption was found at the office of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA).
Participants in the survey stated that 63.29 per cent of the citizens who went to BRTA office for services over the past year were subjected to bribery or corruption.
The figure was 62.94 per cent at law enforcement agencies, 57.45 per cent at passport offices, and 54.92 per cent at land registration offices.
The issue of safety also came up in this survey. According to the survey results, 84.81 per cent of the citizens felt safe walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark. However, women reported feeling significantly less safe than men.
According to the respondents of the survey, about 80 per cent of the women said they felt safe walking alone in their area at night, meaning one in five women do not feel safe doing so. In contrast, 89.53 per cent of men reported feeling safe walking alone after dark.
On the issue of political freedom, the BBS survey found that only 27.24 per cent of the citizens believe they could express opinions about government actions within the political system of the country.
Additionally, 19.31 per cent of the population reported experiencing some form of discrimination or harassment in the past year, according to the survey findings. Women were found to be more frequently subjected to discrimination or harassment than men.