Corruption and its effect on the national development

Introduction: Corruption is the misuse of public office for private gain for the benefit of the holder of the office or some third party. Corruption is a complex social, political and economic phenomenon. Public sector corruption throughout the world and is widespread in many places.

Reasons behind Corruption: There are so many reasons behind corruption. Some of the courses of corruption  are mentioned below:

Poor governance: poor governance is the underling problem of our country. It creates an environment in which corruption will flourish. Because of poor governance there is no transparency or accountability of the government to the public. As such the politicians, public and private employees all get involved with corruption. 

Poverty: Around 50 percent of the people of Bangladesh live under poverty line. They are unable to manage their basic needs. Honesty, morality, virtue etc are meaningless to them. They need two meals a day fro them and their family.  So they do not hesitate to adopt unfair means or offer bribe to fulfill their needs.  

Unemployment: This is a vicious problem for Bangladesh. There are around 140 million people in Bangladesh and most of them are unemployed. It is also not possible for the government of a poor country like Bangladesh to create employment for all its peoples. The demand for jobs is much greater than its availability. So people try to get a job by offering bribe.

Lack of patriotism: patriotism is a divine virtue of human being. It is normal that every citizen would love his/her motherland. A true patriot loves his country and cannot indulge in activities like corruption. But in our country the number of patriotic people are decreasing day by day and the number of corrupted people are increasing due to lack of patriotism.

Lack in rules of law : There are hundreds of laws in Bangladesh but the proper application of  law is rare. Also there are lots of ambiguous laws that need to be amended. Besides the law enforcing agencies in Bangladesh is also corrupted. All these create an environment for corruption and corruption gradually have its roof deep in the society. 

Political Unrest : Polytypical unrest is a common scenario of Bangladesh science independence. The political parties in our country want to go power by any means. When they are in power, they indulge in corruption in favour their party rank and files. When the opposition parties go to power they also follow the same path and engage in corruption.

Poor remuneration : The government servants are paid very poor salaries which is barely enough to maintain their families. Although the price of essentials is going up every day their salaries are not increased in proportion to the market price. Besides, there are no arrangement for incentives for efficiency or performance. Failing to maintain there families some of them indulge in unfair means. Of course there are a segment of the government who are by nature corrupted.

Effects of corruption : Corruption is a majored international problem that demands attention it is also the number one obstacle on the way to national development of Bangladesh. Corruption has breakout as an epidemic in every socio economic fled f Bangladesh. The grip of corruption has reached even at the grass-root level. However, the major effects of corruption is discussed bellow:

Corruption deprives the poor from government services : The greatest impact of corruption is on the poor – those less able to absorbed its cost. Illegally diversion of the scarce resource corruption undercuts government ability to provide basic services, such as health, education, public transportation or local policing to its citizens. Petty corruption provides additional cost for citizens for delivery even the most basic government activities. Moreover it can jeopardize the health and safety of citizens through, for example poorly designed infrastructure projects and scarce or outdated medical supplies.

Corruption lowers investment: Corruption increases the cost of investment and lowers the returns of investment. Investment is essential for the socio- economic development of the country. The Reduced level of investment retards economic growth and thus hampers national development.

Corruption hampers government activities: Corruption like bribery, embezzlement, negligence in duties, nepotism etc reduces the efficiency and competency of the concerned government officials. This in turn slow downs the normal speed of government activities. 

Corruption destroys the morality: Wholesale corruption destroys the moral base of the people. The citizens  forget about their duties and responsibilities their motherland. They only think about their personal gain and benefit, which damages the natural qualities of the people.

Corruption is wastage of public money: Corruption is rampant in Bangladesh. In a poor country like Bangladesh the effect of corruption is devastating. A large amount of the founds allocated for various development programmes is wasted because of corruption.

Good governance: Good governance is a dynamic Concept that can effectively prevent corruption. The main attributes of good governance are rule of law, accountability, transparency in public affairs, decentralization, independence of judicially, respect for human rights, equality of treatment, absence of discrimination, social sensitiveness, ethical approval, knowledge based leadership etc.

Knowledge and awareness: Public awareness is very important to prevent corruption. Each and very individual of the society should be well aware of the bad effects of corruption.   

Transparency: Transparency is one of the most effective preventive mechanisms. It promotes accountability, facilitates oversight and citizen participation and brings legitimacy to governmental decisions.

Lack in adequate rule of law: adequate laws followed by rules of law also provide a good basis for preventing corruption. Sometimes good rules are also not enough as law enforcement mechanisms are weak. So we need to strengthen our law enforcement agencies.

National strategy: A national strategy needs to be taken to prevent corruption. A national strategy is an umbrella approach, which will identify systemic weaknesses across all the institutions that make up the social and economic structure of the country. The strategy will include thorough plans to reduce or eliminate these weaknesses through structural changes, legislation, procedures, and enforcement of preventive measures.

Conclusion: Corruption is a disease that has become so widespread in our society that it pervades all areas of public life. It not only threatens our economic security, it also poses a threat to our national security.