Shawdesh desk:

Bangladesh slides two steps to the 10th position from the bottom among the 180 countries covered in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2023, compared to 12th position in 2022.

Transparency International Bangladesh announced the CPI 2023 report at a press conference at its office in Dhaka on Tuesday.

It said that Bangladesh’s rank in 2023 from the top was 149 among 180 countries, two steps lower than 2022.

TI said that Bangladesh’s performance was disappointing in the year as the country was among 122 countries that had scored below 50 which were considered as having serious corruption problem.

Bangladesh has scored 19 points lower than global average of 43 and it is amongst the 105 countries that have scored below this global average, indicating very serious corruption problems.

TI report said that Bangladesh was 4th lowest among 31 Asia-pacific, better than Afghanistan, Cambodia, Myanmar and North Korea.

About factors behind disappointing results of Bangladesh, TI said that corruption in public institutions services continued unabated, especially bribery and misappropriation of government funds, and abuse of public office for private gain.

It also said that the nepotism and partisan influence in public sector appointments and protection and rewarding of alleged abuse of power, breach of integrity and violation of laws were behind the disappointing result.

TI also identified political and government positions treated as a license for abuse of power Policy capture for abuse of lobby power especially in the banking sector ravaged by loan default and related swindling, financial fraud and money laundering for the bad result.

It also said that the sustained control and intimidation of media and civil society; surveillance, intolerance and reprisal of disclosure and reporting on corruption was also factor of the results.

The CPI 2023 also shows that countries that have democratic regimes, where civil and political rights are protected and respected have a better possibility of effective corruption control.

Besides, with declining democracy and rising authoritarianism worldwide, justice systems are getting weakened leading to reduced accountability and increased corruption and impunity of the corrupt.

TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman suggested depoliticisatiion of state institutions to ensure professional integrity and independence, especially ACC, bureaucracy, law-enforcement and judicial service to control the corruption.

He also urged to ensure freedom of media, civil society and people for unrestricted disclosure, reporting and commenting on corruption.

‘Bring a paradigm shift in political culture free from treating political and public position as license to personal gains to combat graft,’ he added.