In a coun­try where 40 per­cent of the pop­u­la­tion lives less than a dol­lar a day, cor­rup­tion is keep­ing the Bangladesh econ­omy from improv­ing. Peo­ple have to pay bribes to get jobs, shop keep­ers raise their prices to keep up with bribes they have to pay and there are many more exam­ples. For­eign invest­ment dol­lars will not come into the coun­try until cor­rup­tion is cleaned up, but do gov­ern­ment offi­cials really want to clean it up?

From this great analy­sis from Reuters, reporter Anis Ahmed details how cor­rup­tion keeps Bangladesh’s econ­omy from mov­ing up.

Global watch­dog Trans­parency Inter­na­tional rated Bangladesh the world’s most cor­rupt nation for five con­sec­u­tive years from 2001. Sub­se­quently the rat­ing improved, to 10th in 2008, after a military-backed interim gov­ern­ment took tough anti-graft steps.

How­ever, TIB says its lat­est research con­firms wide­spread cor­rup­tion remains, and some oth­ers say it is get­ting worse again. The authories deny that, say­ing the mon­i­tors base their judg­ment mainly on often inflated media reports.

But peo­ple strug­gling day in and day out to make a liv­ing blame cor­rup­tion for many of their problems.

“You will face it every­where,” said Sha­ha­dat Hos­sain, a teacher at a gov­ern­ment pri­mary school.

“I had to pay 100,000 taka ($1,430) as bribe to get this job. But the poor salary I get cov­ers only a part of my expenses,” he told Reuters.

“Gro­cery sell­ers ask higher prices every next day, doc­tors at gov­ern­ment clin­ics won’t treat my child with­out money or give me med­i­cine sup­posed to be a free handout.”

The gov­ern­ment admits efforts to con­tain prices and intro­duce graft-free prac­tices have largely failed, even though pop­ulist Prime Min­is­ter Hasina, who took office in Jan­u­ary fol­low­ing a widely acclaimed demo­c­ra­tic elec­tion, promised to address them.

“Cor­rup­tion has spread like can­cer in our coun­try and soci­ety,” said Mahabub Hos­sain, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Bangladesh’s biggest NGO and lead­ing micro-credit agency, BRAC.

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In a coun­try where 40 per­cent of the pop­u­la­tion lives less than a dol­lar a day, cor­rup­tion is keep­ing the Bangladesh econ­omy from improv­ing. Peo­ple have to pay bribes to get jobs, shop keep­ers raise their prices to keep up with bribes they have to pay and there are many more exam­ples. For­eign invest­ment dol­lars will not come into the coun­try until cor­rup­tion is cleaned up, but do gov­ern­ment offi­cials really want to clean it up?

From this great analy­sis from Reuters, reporter Anis Ahmed details how cor­rup­tion keeps Bangladesh’s econ­omy from mov­ing up.

Global watch­dog Trans­parency Inter­na­tional rated Bangladesh the world’s most cor­rupt nation for five con­sec­u­tive years from 2001. Sub­se­quently the rat­ing improved, to 10th in 2008, after a military-backed interim gov­ern­ment took tough anti-graft steps.

How­ever, TIB says its lat­est research con­firms wide­spread cor­rup­tion remains, and some oth­ers say it is get­ting worse again. The authories deny that, say­ing the mon­i­tors base their judg­ment mainly on often inflated media reports.

But peo­ple strug­gling day in and day out to make a liv­ing blame cor­rup­tion for many of their problems.

“You will face it every­where,” said Sha­ha­dat Hos­sain, a teacher at a gov­ern­ment pri­mary school.

“I had to pay 100,000 taka ($1,430) as bribe to get this job. But the poor salary I get cov­ers only a part of my expenses,” he told Reuters.

“Gro­cery sell­ers ask higher prices every next day, doc­tors at gov­ern­ment clin­ics won’t treat my child with­out money or give me med­i­cine sup­posed to be a free handout.”

The gov­ern­ment admits efforts to con­tain prices and intro­duce graft-free prac­tices have largely failed, even though pop­ulist Prime Min­is­ter Hasina, who took office in Jan­u­ary fol­low­ing a widely acclaimed demo­c­ra­tic elec­tion, promised to address them.

“Cor­rup­tion has spread like can­cer in our coun­try and soci­ety,” said Mahabub Hos­sain, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Bangladesh’s biggest NGO and lead­ing micro-credit agency, BRAC.

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