Combating corruption
Creation of
awareness among the common
people is crucially important to
control
corruption
It is not surprising news that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) arrested a revenue officer of Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) in the city while receiving money from one building owner in exchange for reducing his holding tax. There is no dearth of corrupt elements in Bangladesh. They always look for opportunity to indulge in dubious deals to make money. Here morality or values has taken a back seat.
Corruption eats into the vitals of a society, weakens the state machinery and erodes the credibility of the government. This menace is not only confined to government departments, it has engulfed autonomous bodies and private sectors as well. Successive governments attempted to fight corruption, with no tangible success. The countrys position in terms of corruption index speaks volumes of it. Corruption increases overhead costs for projects and encourages underhand deals.
Corruption exposes the common people to suffering while the persons in high positions reap the benefits. By bringing discipline, accountability and transparency at various government offices corruption can be checked remarkably. Cooperation of the taxpayers along with the government efforts is needed for achieving this goal. The present government has commendable achievements in different sectors. Why should corruption leave its negative impact on those? It is high time for the government to show zero tolerance against corruption. Utterance of mere rhetoric will not do, strong political will and an effective parliament is needed to curb corruption.
The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) in the country should be invested with more power and it should work more independently without fear or favour. The country must get rid of the stigma of corruption at any cost. Political leaders, high government officials, academicians and members of the civil society should come forward to fight corruption.
What is needed is creation of awareness among the common people to control corruption. Members of the law enforcing agencies should be vigilant to halt corruption. New chapters should be added to the textbooks to generate awareness among students to check corruption and the teachers and the guardians have vital roles to play in this regard. There is no alternative to combating corruption for achieving the SDGs.
