Kathmandu, Nepal (BBN)– Corruption is on the rise in six South Asian countries including Bangladesh and failure to tackle it will threaten the region’s economic progress, as well as efforts to share that progress equitably, Transparency International (TI) said.
Despite 6.0 per cent average economic growth in the past 20 years, more than 40 per cent of the world’s poor live in the region, according to the report titled fighting corruption in South Asia: building accountability, released on Wednesday.
“As long as nobody brings the corrupt to justice, South Asia’s leaders run the risk that future growth only benefits the powerful, doing nothing to help the half billion South Asians who still live in poverty,” Srirak Plipat, Asia Pacific Regional Director, Transparency International, said in a statement.
The report shows how a serious lack of political will on the part of governments to make laws work, means that government action to fight corruption is largely ineffective.
It also draws on the findings of in-depth research on anti-corruption efforts in Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which analysed almost 70 institutions across the six countries.
“While none of the institutions assessed were found to be free from corruption risks, this report focuses in particular on the judiciary and anti-corruption agencies as critical actors in the fight against corruption,” the Berlin-based watchdog group said.
The group said there is almost no legal protection for whistleblowers in the region. As a result, wrongdoing by those in positions of power is not being reported.
Prior to 2014, Bangladesh was the only country in South Asia to have a dedicated whistleblower protection law. However there has been very little progress in implementing the law and awareness among potential users is almost non-existent. Indeed, one year after the law was passed, only 10 per cent of mid-ranking civil servants knew that it even existed, according to the report.
In India meanwhile a new whistleblower protection law was passed in early 2014, but it falls well short of recognised international standards. Moreover, the agency responsible for implementing the act lacks adequate powers and has a poor record of enquiring into complaints and imposing penalties.
Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka must develop comprehensive whistleblower protection legislation. “Bangladesh and India must ensure that their existing whistleblower laws are actively promoted and effectively implemented.”
Ordinary citizens struggle to access information on their governments. Even those countries that have passed right to information laws (Bangladesh, India, Maldives and Nepal) are still falling short in establishing the principles of freedom to information, with the report finding that requests for information are not being responded to effectively.
In Bangladesh 88 per cent of information requesters reported having to visit the information provider's office numerous times, 29 per cent reported facing harassment, 26 per cent reported facing difficulties finding the responsible information officer and eight per cent reported having to pay additional money to get the information they were looking for.
“All governments in the region must ensure that appointments, transferral and removals of heads and senior staff of anti-corruption agencies and the judiciary are conducted transparently, on the basis of clear, objective and fair criteria and with the participation of a range of stakeholders, including members of the institutions themselves,” the watchdog group recommended.
It also said appointments should be made by a body acting independently of the executive and the legislature, whose members have been appointed through an objective and transparent process. Such critical decisions must not be made by the government or the president alone.
BBN/SSR/AD-22May14-1:38 am (BST)
