Corruption of up to Tk50,000cr in roads, highways sector in last 15 years
From the lowest level to the highest level, these corruptions have become institutionalized; 40-43% of the money goes missing in the bribery of Roads and Highways Department, said TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman
From 2009-10 fiscal year to 2022-23 fiscal year, the government's total allocation for the Roads and Highways Department was Tk169,449 crore. Of this amount, the corruption rate is 23-40%, which amounts to between Tk29,230 crore and Tk50,835 crore.
This information was reported in a research report of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in the capital today (9 October).
After presenting the report, the Executive Director of TIB Dr Iftekharuzzaman said there is a syndicate among politicians, bureaucrats and contractors while doing projects for public interest.
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From the lowest level to the highest level, these corruptions have become institutionalized; 40-43% of the money goes missing in the bribery of Roads and Highways Department, he added.
"Now if we cannot break the tripartite syndicate, no anti-corruption programme will succeed," he added.
Iftekharuzzaman also said, "When we asked for information about various projects of the Roads and Highways department, we were denied a lot of information. Our expectation is that those information is disclosed publicly, but the reality is that some people have been removed from the organisations but the institutional practices have not changed. So, we don't expect overnight changes."
In response to a question, the Executive Director of TIB Iftekharuzzaman said, "Our research report is only about the projects under implementation with domestic financing. However, there has been corruption in foreign-funded projects as well."
According to the researchers, the projects completed between the financial year 2017-18 to the financial year 2021-22 are included in the scope of this study (the implementation period of these projects is from FY2010-11 to FY2018-19). This study has observed projects related to road construction, road development, highway construction, highway development (below 1,500 meters) and other infrastructure construction.
Information has been collected from the areas under the jurisdiction of 21 Divisional Offices (District Level) of 13 Circles of 10 Zones of Roads and Public Ways Department considering the number, type, allocation and geographical location of completed projects.
