Climate Commitment Or Enhancing Corruption?

Climate fund into corrupt hand May open the alley for corruption grand.

Last week French ambassador to climate change met with Bangladeshi Foreign Minister and reiterated to provide €1 billion as part of climate change support. Earlier, French president Emmanuel Macron on his visit to Bangladesh announced to provide €1 billion to address climate challenges. The decision came at a moment when governance situation deteriorated and corruption worsened. Transparency International downgraded Bangladesh by 2 places and ranked it 10th most corrupt country in its latest corruption perception index.

Back in November 08,2021,I penned a piece titled "Commitment Or New Alley Of Corruption?". Sharing it again:

As countries and various parties in Glasgow are at loggerhead to confine the rate of annual temperature rise to 1.5° celcius by the end of this century,there has been little sign of optimism that they will be able to do that. In the mean time, Bangladesh has chalked out a plan (Nationally Determined Contribution or NDC) to reduce carbon emission by 22% by 2030,higher than 7% of the goal set by Bangladesh back in 2015. The plan,submitted to United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change,envisages that Bangladesh will finance reduction of 6.73% carbon emission while the donors will finance the rest of its reduction commitment. Bangladesh requires $176 billion in this regard.^{1 & 2}

The commitment demonstrates Bangladesh’s eagerness in reducing carbon emission. However, Bangladesh’s past record in managing climate fund is not clean.Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) last year in a study found that 54% of the climate mitigation funds allotted to 7 projects were swindled and one of the culprit was secretary to a minister.³In addition, TIB in another study found 14% to 76% corruption in 4 climate change projects,with a budget of Tk 1,102 crores where Tk 191 crores were swindled.⁴

The outcome of foreign funded projects never ended with a happy note. Look at the status of Election Commission,Police and CHT region.UNDP led initiatives to reform electoral process of Bangladesh, modernization of Police and development of Chittagong Hill Tracts(CHT) brought only embarrassment to the stakeholders.UKAID and other donors mobilized resources so that the projects would meet the desired ends.The outcomes turned out to be costly for the nation. A controversial election was staged in 2018,Tk 4000 crores were misappropriated by a powerful state organ that contributes to UN peace mission in the name of introducing Electronic Voting Machine(EVM), a special hearing on human rights abuse by Police was held in Switzerland by an UN agency and an eruption of gun violence in CHT claiming lives of many indigenous leaders. This has been common trend of project financed by donors in Bangladesh.

And Bangladesh is replete with examples how such projects backfired. World Bank funded local governments like City Corporations ( Pourasava) and Zila Parishads through Bangladesh Municipal Development Fund(BMDF) so that they could become independent financially and accountable to local people. After a decade,it stopped funding in the project as hardly any of them showed any positive impact.⁵ Cox's Bazaar which could be the richest City Corporation of Bangladesh even sought Tk 26 crores to BMDF. Now look at the kind of people chaired these institutions. Borishal City Mayor and his disciples vandalized the city over a row with a bureaucrat. Secretary to Cumilla City Corporation was identified in taking part in vandalism during the Durgapuja. Disciples of Cox's Bazaar City mayor cut the city for 5-long hours from rest of Bangladesh and littered the streets with garbage after murder cases had been filed against him.

What is worrying illicit financial flow has also become a problem for the country. The figure continues to rise. Many donor countries often appointed their former ambassadors to Bangladesh to the Caribbean countries, offshore heaven of the world,and seldom integrated them back to the Foreign Ministry. An indication of how they perceive Bangladesh. Last year,British govt even dissolved UKAid and merged it with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.⁶

Many argue that incidence of poverty increased in spite of the various safety net programs taken in the last couple of years.COVID-19 deteriorated the situation.That means over the years through various poverty alleviation measures,except micro credit, we failed to create a sustainable system of poverty alleviation. Micro credit institutions play crucial role to meet the working capital need of micro and small entrepreneurs. But resource mobilization and policy formulation are tasks of policy planners. And we see wrong policy and corruption often deprived the target population and derailed us from reaching the destination.

To me, fight against global warming is an individual one rather than a state-backed one.Individual can reduce carbon emission through his consumption and the way he or she lives the life. Eating less meat,consuming staple that requires less methane in the cultivation process, less dependence on fossil fuel,avoiding air-conditioned environment etc significantly improve one’s carbon emission footprint. The more conscious a nation is, the better will be its carbon footprint.Involving a corrupt state where there is lack of accountability into negotiations with perpetrators of worsening global warming is more like to play the role of a complice in a crime. Many govts may finance the pledges. But the corrupt institutions and agencies, often trained by these countries, did little to stop corruption in the disbursement and implementation of such funds. And through clandestine channels some of the misappropriated money ended up in foreign overseas banks. While one points to donors’ failure to attain the goals, they will simply shrug their responsibilities,telling the sum they paid over the years. Victim country will be double loser even if this is a simple grant because cost of $1 illicit outflow is more than receiving $1 legally. It is simply because one has to pay more taka to purchase $1 unofficially in a bid to launder it abroad. Victim country is the net loser in the sense it will face all the impacts of climate change and it cannot blame the perpetrators for not playing their roles. Even worst is that stolen money ends up in political campaign of powerful countries,dragging victim country into unwanted debate. The likelihood of which is higher than ever before.

Hydrocarbon business is booming. There is no short of investment. I am not against hydrocarbon business. Bangladesh is one of the countries that benefit a lot from this business as millions of its workers work in the Middle Eastern countries. But many find it hypocratic to call others to reduce carbon emission while engaging in activities that only increase the temperature. Without any course correction, insisting others for commitment only creates suspicion and distrust.

Notes And References

1. “Bangladesh Pitches For Climate Sensitive Growth”,Kamran Reza Chowdhury,https://thethirdpole.net,October 25,2021 Link here
2. “Bangladesher Ucchovilashi Lokkho,Purone Chai 15 Lakh Koti Taka(‘Ambitious Goal’ of Bangladesh,Tk 15 Lakh Crores Required)”,Iftekhar Mahmud, Daily Prothom Alo,November 02,2021.
3. “TIB :Over 50% Climate Mitigation Funds Lost To Corruption, Mismanagement ”,Mehedi Al Amin,Dhaka Tribune,November 05,2020 Link here
4. “TIB Study : 14% to 76% Corruption Found In Climate Change Projects”,Sohel All Mamun,Dhaka Tribune, December 24,2021Link here
5. “Bishwabanker Rin Bondho,Sonkote Mayorra(World Bank Loan Stops,Mayors Are In Crisis) ”,Arifur Rahman,Daily Prothom Alo,August 11,2021 Link here
6. Department For International Development Link here

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(21 janvier --- 28 janvier)

Selon un reportage,7 Bangladais sont morts de froid quand ils avaient tenté de traverser la Méditerranée.

Selon un reportage, Transparency International a placé Bangladesh 147ème parmi 180 pays dans son indice de corruption pour 2021.

Selon un reportage, 9 zèbres sont morts mystérieusement dans un parc de Bangladesh.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(22 janvier --- 29 janvier)

Selon un reportage, Bangladesh est classé 146ème dans l'indice de corruption pour l'année 2020. Transparency International a divulgué cette info. Parmi les pays plus corrompus, Bangladesh se trouve dans 12ème position.

Selon un reportage, le nombre de mort à cause de Covid-19 a franchi 8.000. Le cas de détection a aussi baissé dans les semaines récentes.

Selon un reportage, cadavre pendu d'un adolescent indien a été trouvé dans un centre de correction pour les adolescents.

Selon un reportage, une conversation téléphonique entre un député et un policier a causé assez de polémique dans la presse. Dans la conversation, un député a ordonné un policier d'arrêter un avocat sous l'inculpation fausse de l'inciter violence. L'avocat a déposé une plainte contre une briqueterie qui se situe à la circonscription électorale de ce député à Jessore.

Selon un reportage, une cour koweïtienne a condamné un député bangladais à 4 ans de prison. De plus, il sera payé une amende de Tk 5,32 millions.Il a trafiqué des gens et de l'argent.

Thank You For The Bakshish!

Road, tree and footpath are torn asunder,
Greed for public money is behind the development blunder.
Bidi smokers pay the bill for public work,
Poor ranking does not even cause reaction knee-jerk.

1.
2014. I was cosharing a CNG taxi (three wheeler) on my way to Mirpur-10. The taxi had to go through the restricted garrison area in the middle of Dhaka. I started the journey from a place called Sainik Club, near Banani-11. The road stretching from Kachukhet to Mirpur-10 was in a sorry state. At first glance,one might think someone had ploughed the road with a power tiller. The road was so bad that in that short spell of journey we were literally lobbed into the air and instantly landed on our seat. Usually, such short journey is never meant to start a conversation with a fellow passenger,a stranger. The stranger could not help spitting his venom: " You know this road is supposed to be fixed long ago. Every year they sanctioned money.These SOBs swindled the money submitting false papers. It happened six times! S-i-x times! Can you believe it?They just do nothing. This road is right in the heart of Dhaka. Can you believe it?" He lamented throughout the journey while we were inhaling fair amount of cream colored dust jumping up and down inside the CNG.

Later the road was fixed. And I traveled along the road couple of times. In recent years, the road had gone through several surgeries of government's development work. It healed. But paid a price. It lost its earlier charm: Devdaroos and other garden trees were cut to make room for development work.

Once a question about the poor condition of the roads was thrown at a responsible ruling party leader who now holds the portfolio of road and transport. His answer was remarkable. "Well you know our people have short memories. They quickly forget everything. These repairing works are shelved for election years. When they travel along the newly fixed road in that election year they will tell themselves how bad the road was! People remember good thing only for a while!"

2.
Transparency International once again degraded Bangladesh in its corruption perception index. For the year 2020, from least corrupt to most corrupt countries,Bangladesh is placed 146. Among the most corrupt countries, Bangladesh is ranked 12th. Previous year, Bangladesh was the 14th most corrupt country.

Some snapshots could aptly describe the deterioration of corruption situation in Bangladesh.

In the last financial year, government relaxed the rules for legalizing the black money. Nearly Tk 100 billion undocumented money were deposited in the banks. Couple of times more money maybe lying in the coffers of owners of clandestine wealth.

Social safety net programs designed to help the vulnerable section of the society have also fallen victim of corruption. According to a news report, 46% of the safety net benefits have gone to the wrong hands. Who does not comply for such programs is taking full advantage of it due to lack of transparency.

Even the Transparency International in one of its local study has found that more than 50% of the climate change fund allocated for some government projects are stolen. Target groups do not get any benefit from such allocation.

Appeal of such fund even invited thugs to misuse the fund. According to a news report, a thug swindled millions of Taka out of Kushtia villagers. He deceived them lending him the money in a bid to spend part of the "thousands of crore taka" his hoax NGO received from abroad.

But nothing matches the magnitude of irregularities in infrastructure projects.Swollen figure of Padma Bridge construction cost has become a matter of the past. Similar trend is being observed in other development projects.A news report revealed that Khulna-Mongla rail link project now costs Tk 47.98 billion. Ten years ago when it was conceived the initial project cost was Tk 17.2 billion. Chittagong-Gundum rail link project, costs Tk 180.43 billion, was delayed on several occasions. It was kicked off back in 2010. Significant delay ended up raising the costs manifold.

Corruption also crippled the financial sector. Central Bank, the very regulatory body to check the operations of financial institutions has not yet settled the issue of the pirated forex money. Some miscreants stole thousands of crore taka from leasing companies. Public banks and specialized banks are still reeling from scams.

COVID -19 laid bare the ongoing corruption in the health sector. A hoax screening program was run by a group of thugs. Inflated equipment costs and lack of transparency filled the pockets of non-technical staffs. This week a news report revealed how overpriced goods were purchased for Faridpur Medical College bypassing the public procurement regulations , resulting in corruption of Tk 100 million. Earlier similar corruption allegations in procurement had surfaced for Borishal Medical college and Suhrawardy Medical College. Police even detained political leaders for supplying overpriced and faulty N95 masks to PG Hospital.

The list is endless. Hardly any sector left where corruption has not unleashed its tentacles.

3.
The road I talked about earlier still goes through occasional digging and fixing in the winter. A new phenomenon is added : pedestrian's walkway also gets a new look every year. June and July mark the end and start of fiscal year in Bangladesh. So the last two quarters witness an unusual surge in spending the public fund allocated in the budget. As there is little transparency in spending the money, this kind of wasting and useless development work continues unabated just to make some vested quarter rich. Walkways in good condition,which could easily last for 4/5 years, pointlessly fall under the spade and excavator of money-thirsty contractors. It is indeed a mockery with the money of bidi ( cigarette for workers)smokers and laundry soap users who seldom use the walkways.

4.
Digitization is increasingly seen as a mean to inhibit corruption in public office. A joke popped up. Near future Bangladesh. A gentleman wants to avail the service of a public office. Like everyone else he maintains a prepaid account with the service provider.To his dismay, he notices that he has been charged Tk 100 more than the bill of the service.Flashing message on the smartphone screen reads: " Your bill is Tk X. Thank you for the bakshish of Tk 100. Have a nice day!"

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(25 janvier --- 1 février)

Selon un reportage, le gouvernement du Népal a divulgué son enquête sur l'accident d'un vol de US Bangla Airlines.L'enquête a mis l'accent sur la condition psychologique de pilote pendant le vol. L'autorité bangladaise a accusé le gouvernement népalais pour ne pas avoir mis l'accent sur la faute de contrôle de Traffic aérien de l'aéroport de Kathmandu.

Selon un reportage, Global Financial Integrity s'est dit que Tk 500 milliards ont été blanchi depuis Bangladesh en 2015.

Selon un reportage, Transparency International dans la nouvelle indice de corruption a classé Bangladesh 149 parmi 180 pays. La position de Bangladesh a été baissée par 5 pas dans une année. Cela indique corruption amplifie dans le pays. Le chef de l'agence de l'anti-corruption a demandé des données sur l'enquête de TI.
Selon un reportage, un ancien banquier a escroqué Tk 186 milliards et s'est enfui à l'étranger. Il menait service financier clandestin depuis longtemps. L'escroquerie a laissé ses clients en difficulté financière.