Integrity check
Several conclusions can be drawn from the results of the National Youth Integrity Survey 2015 by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB). Although some may say that the survey was conducted among a small number of youth in the country compared to their total number, practically this survey like all others tried to establish a pattern that could be considered as representative on the whole of the entire youth in the country.
First of all, the survey results show strikingly that the greater number of the surveyed youth are clinging on to highly moralistic concept of integrity which they find missing among government employees in different sectors with whom they are required to interact regularly. Conspicuously, they identified politicians as the most deficient in integrity and morality, followed by members of the law enforcement agencies, land administration and judicial services. Secondly, they expressed overwhelmingly a sense of frustration in this situation; they said that compromising with corruption was unavoidable to get things moving or done. Thirdly, the respondents in the survey gave higher positive scores to operators of private businesses for their integrity. This view contrasts sharply with their negative perception of public sector employees or government servants for their lack of care and integrity. Fourthly, they are of the opinion that lack of integrity is a very formidable problem undermining the countrys economy and overall development.
The outcome of the survey should serve as a wake up call among our policymakers. The young people of the country are its future. Needless to say, their hopes and aspirations need to be recognized and respected along with appropriate responses to create the very conditions for the younger generations to feel sufficiently motivated to stay and work dedicatedly in the country in various sectors. One may safely assume that their concern about integrity is also shared in general by the countrys population in all groups.
So, what is to be done ? Indeed, the integrity issues raised by the young ones are not relatively new creations spanning over some years. These factors have been present--pervasively--since the independence of the country and then all through the post independence period. It was no different in the pre-independence era either.
Thus, realising that lack of morals and hence corruption are endemic to Bangladesh, we should start addressing the malaise at the fastest. But only exhorting people to be moral in their outlook and behaviour will not do. They have to be effectively persuaded and obliged to act morally. A proper accountability system must become an integral part of the civil services that would transparently detect the corruption mongers and penalize them appropriately, immediately and unsparingly. There has to be political resolve to this end and pressures for this resolve must come from the media, civil society and all other stakeholders.
Reaching the vital ant-corruption goals will also vitally require the laying down of systems that would make very difficult or impossible for corrupt individuals to trick the systems. For example, computerisation of some sections of government services have already much reduced the scope of manual delaying and tampering by unscrupulous government employees in relation to public demands for various services unlike in the past. Therefore widest automation of the government services must be targeted for achievement at the earliest.
