The Transparency International, Bangladesh on Wednesday sent its household survey on corruption index in the service sectors to the office of the Supreme Court’s registrar.
The TIB also sent a letter, along with its report, welcoming the authorities’ move to appraise the survey which found the judiciary to be the most corrupt sector in the country, followed by the law enforcement agencies and the land administration.
‘We are happy that our report has drawn the authorities’ attention. The purpose of the survey was to draw the attention of the policy-makers so that they can take effective steps to prevent corruption on the basis of our findings,’ said the letter which was signed by TIB’s executive director Iftekharuzzaman.
The letter further said that the Transparency International, Bangladesh would provide the Supreme Court with more information if required.
A TIB official, on behalf of Iftekharuzzaman, submitted the survey report, which includes the findings and the questionnaires of the survey, to the deputy registrar 1 of the Supreme Court, Badrul Alam Bhuiyan, in the afternoon.
Sources in the registrar’s office said that concerned officials would hand them over to Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque with due procedures.
In a letter on Tuesday to the TIB’s executive director, the deputy registrar 1 of the Supreme Court sought the TIB’s report, saying that the Supreme Court would take effective steps after it received the relevant documents of the survey conducted by the TIB.
Earlier in the day, the chief justice called an emergency meeting at his residence on Hare Road where two Appellate Division judges and 10 senior-most judges of the High Court were present, said sources in the registrar’s office. The meeting decided to seek the TIB’s report and take steps in this regard.
The TIB revealed its findings at a discussion in the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies on December 23. It had prepared the report on the basis of a household survey it had conducted between June 2009 and May 2010.
According to the survey, about 88 per cent of people who sought service from the judiciary were somehow made victims of corruption. Some 79.7 per cent of the people who approached law enforcement agencies and 71.2 per cent who went to the land administration also became the victims of corruption.
The TIB’s report also said that corruption in the judiciary had increased by 40.3 per cent in the last three years. A survey conducted in 2007 had found that 47.7 per cent of the judiciary were corrupt.
