TI-Bangladesh launches online “Report Corruption” Initiative

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) launched an online initiative called Report Corruption to facilitate greater people engagement in the social movement against corruption in Bangladesh. Through this platform the people will get an opportunity to proactively and directly report incidents and experiences of bribery in key areas of TIB’s thematic interest of civic engagement - health, education, local government, land and climate finance. 

TIB created_at this platform (www.ti-bangladesh.org/rc)  will serve three main purposes: a) referral of specific cases to the concerned authorities, especially Anti-corruption Commission and relevant institutions including ministries and departments for action against acts of corruption; b) study of sector-wise corruption trends and implications based on experiences of victims and witnesses; and c) wider dissemination, communication and advocacy for positive change.

Corruption is a big problem in Bangladesh. According to TIB's National Household Survey 2012, some 63.7 percent of respondents reported that they were victims of corruption in one or other of the selected sectors covered by the survey. In terms of implications of corruption measured by the amount of bribe, the situation has worsened compared to 2010, when cost of bribery in the surveyed sectors was estimated at 1.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or 8.7 percent the of annual national budget, which in 2012 rose to 2.4 percent of GDP and 13.4 percent of the annual budget.

By reporting incidences of bribery, the citizens of Bangladesh will be able to raise their voices against corruption report specific instance of corruption , especially bribery while this will help TIB to refer to and advocate with respective institutions such as Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) to take actions against the corrupt and thereby reduce corruption in service delivery in selected sectors.

The Report Corruption platform is available on both Bangla and English language, with a provision of downloading Android apps from Google’s play store. Apart from the website it is also applicable for mobile phone.  

Meanwhile, TIB has also started piloting another initiative called Advocacy and Legal Advice Centres (ALAC) in three of its project areas: Lalmonirhat, Khulna and Rangamati districts. ALAC provides free and confidential legal advice to witnesses and victims of corruption to pursue their complaints. ALAC doesn’t represent plaintiffs in court, nor does it determine existence or non existence of corruption. In the same manner in case of Report Corruption,

other than providing advice on possible legal procedure, referring to relevant authority and follow up advocacy, TIB and its platforms do take action against any individual or institution for alleged act of corruption, which is the jurisdiction of Anti-Corruption Commission, law enforcing agencies and the court. 

In addition to direct on-site reporting in the relevant local TIB offices of the three mentioned districts, people will be able to report complaints through sms, another initiative of TIB which will be gradually replicated throughout the country. TIB also plans to scale up the ALAC initiative in six more project areas in the next three years.