| Date: 30 March 2008 |
| From: Janomat bd |
| Reply To: centerforgoodgovernance@yahoo.com |
| IP: 10.141.99.5 |
| Subject: Ending Corruption Towards a collaborative
strategy |
Ending Corruption: Towards a collaborative
strategy*
*Prof. Syed Ahsanul Alam**
*
*
Corruption in its all shades and color is the illegal tool
of accumulating
illegal wealth depriving a person which creates
inequality and social
injustice. Corruption destroys social
order, rule of law and all good
governance efforts. Corruption
and the corrupts are the enemies of the
people and the society in
any country. That is why fighting corruption and
installing
honesty is a pre condition for good governance for ensuring
human
rights, human dignity, equality and social justice and
better business
environment.
Holding the first position in
Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 5
consecutive years has
tarnished the image of Bangladesh, and in such a
situation
majority of the citizens did not know what to do and how to
start
a fight against this man made tool of exploitation called
corruption. Under
the previous oppressive corrupt governance and
social system conscious
citizens attempted to raise voice against
this evil through the media or
different civil societies
organizations. Today everybody including the
Chairman
Anti-Corruption Commission emphasizes on the reality of designing
a
collaborative strategy to limit this evil call corruption. The
following
nonviolent silent strategies may be used to curve down
corrupt practices in
every sector of Bangladesh.
*
*
*Ending Corruption: Naming and shaming
strategy*
Naming and shaming can be a very effective tactic
to eradicate corruption in
any country. Even in developing
countries, where corruption is accepted as a
necessary evil,
naming and shaming tactic has been effective in recent
years. In
India, high profile cases uncovered and actively reported by
the
citizen action group have led to disgraceful dismissals of
high level
government officials and even criminal action against
public figures. No
such example has been set by the political
governments in Bangladesh in the
past. But citizen action groups
or the media demonstrated ability to
generate outrage among the
public that can be channeled productively to
control and
eradicate corruption. Nobody can undermine the role and power
of
media in the society for establishing good
governance.
* *
*Ending Corruption: Creating awareness
strategy among the Stakeholders*
Everyday policy makers,
professionals, business leaders, sociologist,
economists and
others independently generate amazing number of ideas
and
thoughts. The reasons that these ideas don't come to fruition
is because
like-minded reformers do seldom collaborate to bring
changes. There are a
lot of international and domestic
organizations, NGOs, government agencies,
opinion leaders and
others – that are all individually working on tackling
corruption
in a piece-meal fashion. A more comprehensive approach to
address
corruption will be more fruitful. Corruption can be marginalized
if
not eliminated if all stakeholders work together in a
coordinated manner
against corruption. **
Ideas and
thoughts are ineffective if not put to actions. Unless what
is
thought is acted upon, such thought has no value. What is
important is the
commitment of all the citizens – leaders of
respective fields– to take on
the challenge of ending corruption
and to do one's own part to address it in
a collaborative manner.
Corruption, as in all affairs in society may be
viewed from the
two sides: *a demand side* and *a supply side*. The *demand
*
*side* can only be curbed by reforms of institutions,
strengthened
enforcement of law by a transparent judiciary. As
the owner of the country
all citizens are affected by corruption
everyday, and as such they should
insist reforms of the
legislative, executive and judicial organ of the
country. The
stake holders of a corruption free society should get united
to
raise voice against corruption to curve the *supply side*.
Thus the citizens
will have to participate in the battle against
corruption and only moral
support to the Anti Corruption
Commission (*ACC*) is not enough to
eliminate
corruption.
* *
*Ending Corruption:
Creating awareness among the Civil Society*
Citizens face
potential corruption practically at every level and every
sector
of life. It could be the local police, T.N.T, electricity and
water
authority, Municipal Corporation or the tax department.
Government alone
cannot succeed in combating corruption without
the active participation of
civil society and citizen action
groups. Civil society is in the best
position to articulate the
grievances of the citizen and highlight
priorities of action on
corruption to governments. Civil society can serve
many important
roles–as observer, critic, analyst, campaigner, or protestor.
It
can create public awareness against corruption and mobilize citizens
to
fight against corruption in ways that governments cannot.
Civil society can
also play a strong role to organize campaigns
against corruption.
Center ForGood Governance is working with
many civic organizations for
capacity
building of such
organization.
*Ending Corruption: Creating awareness
among Chambers and Trade Bodies*
As Civil society
organizations, Citizens' action groups, NGOs, media,
and
Chambers–can play the largest role in improving governance
both in the
public and private sector. Similarly *Chambers* can
be more active by
organizing seminars, workshops, round tables to
generate awareness against
corruption and unethical business
practice. Chambers can establish
*anti* *corruption
cell*
headed by a vice president with adequate funds to establish
liaison
with media, anti corruption commission (ACC) and other
government agencies
to combat corruption and protect its members
from extortion and corrupt
claims. Mega chambers should formulate
code of conduct for their members and
put pressure on the members
for compliance. Awareness regarding code of
conduct for members
of chambers would have trickle down effect on smaller
business
enterprises and so on. **
* *
*Ending Corruption:
Creating awareness among Private Sector*
The private sector
can play a more active role in rooting out the *supply
side* of
corruption. It is painful that most businessman and citizens
looks
at corrupt practice as a system. According to unofficial
estimates many
business house just account for it on their books
– as much as 10% – adding
to the cost of doing business. Business
leaders as well as the government
should take initiatives so that
local and foreign investors can set up
business enterprise and
function in Bangladesh without resorting to
corruption and
extortion. After 1/11/07 the present Anti corruption
commission
(ACC) visibly started a crusade against corruption which may
be
looked upon as a proactive move towards corruption free
governance.**
For eradicating corruptions the private sector
must emphasize on internal
controls and auditing mechanisms.
Corporate bodies and business houses
needs to set clear and
enforceable policies against corrupt or unethical
business
practices. Business house need to periodically train middle
and
senior management on business ethics to ensure that standards
are
institutionalized throughout the organization. Business
houses should
change their mind-set to prefer managers having
comprehensive business
education with emphasis on ethics. Any
business managers can not afford to
be unaware of global ethical
standards for doing business in Bangladesh.**
*
*
*Conclusion*
In a developing country for good
governance the fight against corruption is
not easy. Bangladesh
recently started drive against corruption. It is
expected the
present caretaker government, patriot citizens and
other
stakeholders will be able to address the most difficult
challenge – fighting
corruption. Corruption is a tremendous
deterrent to good governance and
development, and its burden
falls heaviest on the shoulders of the poor
people. An effective
Anti-Corruption Commission – with strong political
backing, can
become a credible tool to deter corruption. All concerned
should
help the ACC to be fully operative. If Bangladesh wants to
establish
corruption free business friendly environment, wants to
become a country
free of poverty and economically strong, where
every citizen will enjoy his
or her rights and a better quality
life, ending corruption is the most
important need. It is the
responsibility of every stakeholder to respond to
this need
towards corruption free, transparent, participatory
good
governance ensuring equity and social justice.**
No
body will deny that, in Bangladesh the past governance mechanism was
far
less then satisfactory. Many issues and problems were the
barriers to ensure
good governance, equity and social justice.
Weak watchdog institutions
corruption, political interference in
administration, nepotism, misuse of
power, absence of rule of
law, non-accountable and non-transparent
governments etc. are the
common features of our governance which needs to be
addressed on
urgent
basis.
**
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author
Syed Ahsanul Alam is an Associate Professor of marketing at
the
University of Chittagong, Bangladesh and Chairman, Center for
Good
Governance. His recent administrative post includes vice
rector IIBT (
Premier University), Director, Sadharon Bima Corp.,
Treasurer. USTC (SWC),
Representative of the President,USTC.He
lactured widely at various business
schools including University
of Science and Technology, Open University,
ABAC Thailand and
also in Singapore. Rotarian Syed Ahsanul Alam is a well
known
Academician, Institution Building Personality and Activist for
Good
Governance.The Author may be reached at Fax :
880-31-2550872,
E-mail:centerforgoodgovernance@yahoo.com,
Web-site:
www.goodgovernancebd.org | |
|