Bribery and corruption during Yunus era require ACC probe

Corruption has reared its ugly head again. That would be a disturbing headline for any country. For Bangladesh, though, such a headline would be plain wrong.

Corruption has not reared its head again, because it never went away.

Corruption seems to be one of those national "characteristics" that always manages to hold its head high, no matter the circumstances.

That seems to be the damning message from a sector-wise household survey done by the Bangladesh branch of the Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International.

The most disturbing part of their recent report was that corruption, which reached unprecedented levels during the 15-year rule of the Awami League, spread even further during the 18-month interim period overseen by Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus.

The TIB's message has received an apparent nod of approval from Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed. While speaking in parliament on 28 June, Ahmed requested Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to instruct the Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the 18 months of the Yunus government.

"Where corruption happened, how it happened, who were involved — everything needs to be found out," Ahmed was quoted as saying.

This raises another question. Why would the anti-corruption body require an instruction from the prime minister to investigate corruption? The ACC is nominally an autonomous body, free, theoretically, to launch its own investigation based on tips from sources, verifiable reports in the media, and so on.

Bribery across the board

In a normal world, one would expect the ACC to take note of TIB survey reports and launch investigations to verify the information, identify suspects, and then prosecute. It is only successful and consistent prosecution that would deter officials from making bribery a way of life in the service sector.

This TIB survey was not aiming to expose mega-corruption associated with mega-projects. No heavyweight minister, adviser, senior bureaucrat, or project official was in the crosshairs. This report dealt with bribery at the point of service delivery to ordinary households — and that is precisely what makes it so significant, and in urgent need of ACC action.

The survey revealed that in 2025, a higher proportion of households (63.6%) paid bribes to receive state services, compared to 2023 when the Awami League was in power (50.8%).

The survey also showed the average household paid a lower amount per bribe in 2025 than in 2023. But because a greater number of households were facing corruption, the total money paid as bribes in 2025 amounted to Tk12,633 crore (just over $1 billion), nearly 16% higher than in 2023.

Corruption as obscenity

One piece of damning statistics in the report: households living below the poverty line paid 34% of their income in bribes to the police.

The officials at the ACC need to ponder this for a moment. People living below the poverty line in Bangladesh are probably among the poorest of the poor in the entire world, and they are spending a third of whatever little money they have on bribes to the police.

This is not just corruption. This is obscenity.

Does the ACC really need to be instructed or permitted by the prime minister to tackle this kind of obscenity dressed up as corruption? Or should it proactively seek whatever permission or clearance it needs to investigate government officials?

Since the fall of the Awami League government in August 2024, there was widespread expectation that corruption in all its manifestations would be tackled as a matter of priority.

The Yunus government did not explicitly make eradication of corruption one of its stated goals. But it nevertheless created the expectation that, since corruption was allegedly driven by the previous regime, the new administration would show zero tolerance towards corruption in government ministries, departments and offices.

The TIB survey has exposed that expectation as a naive — even false — one.

Plight of ordinary families

Much of the focus of public discourse during the interim period was on "big-ticket" corruption under the AL. Strong light was shone on huge embezzlement from mega-projects, massive loans from banks with no intention of repayment, and alleged smuggling of tens of billions of dollars to overseas accounts.

One such effort was carried out by a group of senior economists headed by Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, who compiled a white paper to expose the scale of corruption between 2009 and 2024.

Their report, completed within three months in late 2024, alleged that $234 billion was smuggled out of Bangladesh, with investments in property in Canada, the UAE, Malaysia, the UK, and elsewhere.

However, such grand-scale theft — characteristic of what Dr Bhattacharya called "crony capitalism giving rise to kleptocracy" — dealt with millions of dollars stolen by those at the top of the pecking order. Public discourse also stayed focused on misappropriation of public funds, default on bank loans, and similar matters.

Meanwhile, ordinary families suffer immeasurable stress and humiliation while being compelled to find money to bribe officials, merely to receive services they are entitled to — at the passport office, the vehicle registration office, the land registration office, or at police stations across the country.

The TIB's household survey addressed this aspect of corruption: the unglamorous, everyday bribery that most families endure but few want to talk about.

White paper, not whitewash

The home minister's stated desire aligns closely with what Dr Bhattacharya had suggested soon after the 12 February elections, which brought the BNP back to power. He called on the incoming government to publish a white paper on the interim period — just as one had been published in late 2024 on the Awami League's 15-year tenure.

But the idea was swiftly dismissed by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam on 18 February. He told journalists that the Yunus government had done such a good job that there was "no need for a white paper."

The picture of rampant corruption during the interim period revealed by the TIB survey, however, ought to exercise minds in the BNP government and impress upon them the need to address the issue objectively.

It is understandable that the BNP would be keen to dig up dirt on its main political rival the AL, but less so on the Yunus-led interim government. But with evidence of widespread and persistent corruption affecting the poorest communities laid bare so powerfully by TIB, the "no need" attitude may no longer be the most politically astute position to hold. The case for a white paper — rather than a whitewash — is likely to become more pressing in the weeks and months ahead.

The corruption probe ought not be confined to the low-level bribery cases highlighted in the TIB report alone. The wealth and bank transactions of all interim government members and senior officials, along with project finances, need to be scrutinised with as much diligence as is being applied to those associated with the AL period. Selective action is unlikely to deliver any public trust in the ACC.

Sabir Mustafa. Sketch: TBS

Sabir Mustafa is a journalist and podcaster. 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.