Bangladesh slips two notches in global graft index, only better than Afghanistan in S Asia

Bangladesh slipped two ranks in the Corruption Perception Index 2023, positioning at 149th out of 180 countries ranked.

The country scored 24 out of 100 in the index, disclosed Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).

According to the report, Bangladesh ranks better than Afghanistan among South Asian countries.

Last year's score was the lowest in the last 12 years. The position of Bangladesh was 147th in 2022.

Scores below 43 means the country is heavily facing challenges due to corruption, he said while reading out the index and its key findings at TIB's Dhanmondi office yesterday.

"Bangladesh's score is embarrassing and dissatisfactory. Corruption level was unprecedented in public purchase, contract and development project implementation," said Iftekharuzzaman.

"There is no effective action against endless exposures to money laundering. In some cases, we have seen a discrepancy between the promise against battling money laundering and taking steps against the perpetrators," said Iftekharuzzaman.

He said the low ranking indicates ineffective implementation of the government's anti-corruption commitment. "Rather, corruption has surged in the public sector, with no significant action taken despite the revelation of numerous money laundering cases." 

Besides, there has been a failure to tackle banking sector vulnerabilities such as loan defaults and money laundering, he added.

According to the latest index, 24 countries with "full democracy" scored an average 73, while 48 with "flawed democracy" scored an average 48. 

The average score of 36 countries with "hybrid democracy" is 36 and 59 with authoritarian governments scoring an average 29. 

Regarding the validity of the research, Iftekharuzzaman said there is no possibility of politicised observation in the Transparency International. 

"The political party that remains in power criticises us and when they are in opposition they praise and use our observations. Even they try to make noise for the ruling party when they are in opposition. Only the ruling party always dismisses and criticises us and sees our observation as political 'bias', he added.

Sultana Kamal, chairperson of TIB, said the ruling AL promised zero tolerance against corruption. "But sometimes we get disheartened by their words and act in some cases." 

Once AL fought against the military-backed regime back in 1989 with a three-party alliance and the second most agenda was freedom of speech. But they didn't follow the trail," said Sultana Kamal.

The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranks 180 countries and territories around the globe by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, scoring countries on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Over two-thirds of countries score below 50 out of 100, which strongly indicates that they have serious corruption problems, reads the 2023 report. 

The global average is stuck at only 43, while the vast majority of countries have made no progress or declined in the last decade. What is more, 23 countries fell to their lowest scores to date this year.

Denmark tops the list as the least corrupt country with a score of 90 out of 100 on the index. Finland is in second position with 87.