Why Do We Expect Honesty in a System That Often Rewards Dishonesty?

We often complain that honesty is disappearing from Bangladesh.

We ask why people take bribes, why public officials demand unofficial payments, why businesses evade rules, why people lie to obtain services, why political influence matters more than merit and why citizens sometimes choose shortcuts rather than follow the law.

But there is a deeper question we rarely ask: Can we reasonably expect honesty from people who are trapped in a system where survival, access to services and economic security are often shaped by inequality, corruption and privilege?

This is not an argument for dishonesty. Nor should poverty ever be used as an excuse for corruption.

But if Bangladesh genuinely wants an honest society, it must understand the economic and social conditions that make dishonesty, bribery, deception and informal transactions increasingly normalised.

The latest evidence is deeply troubling. TIB-Transparency International Bangladesh’s National Household Survey 2025 found that 81.6 percent of households experienced corruption while accessing services, while 63.6 percent were compelled to pay bribes or unauthorised payments.

The estimated value of such transactions reached Tk12,633crore, equivalent to 1.58 percent of the revised national budget for 2024–25 and 0.23 percent of GDP.

These figures tell us something more important than the amount of money changing hands.

They suggest that corruption is becoming embedded in everyday transactions between citizens and institutions.

Even more disturbing is why people pay. TIB found that 61.3 percent of households that did not complain believed corruption were an inherent part of service delivery, while 48.9 percent did not know where or how to complain and 32.3 percent avoided complaints because of fear of harassment or complications.

When people begin to believe that nothing can be obtained without an unofficial payment, corruption stops looking like an abnormal act. It becomes a survival strategy.

This creates a vicious circle.
A poor person needs a government service but cannot afford to wait indefinitely.

Someone needs a land document, passport, healthcare, police assistance, agricultural support or another essential service.

If paying extra money is perceived as the fastest or only way to obtain it, the person faces an uncomfortable choice: remain honest and potentially lose time, income or access, or pay and get the service.

The system thereby teaches people that honesty has a cost while dishonesty has a reward.

The burden is not equal. It is also reported that lower-income households spend a larger proportion of their income on bribes than wealthier households.

In its 2023 survey, households earning below Tk24,000 a month spent about 0.93 percent of annual income on bribes, compared with 0.21 percent among households earning more than Tk85,000.

This is where corruption intersects with poverty and inequality.
Bangladesh has made considerable progress in reducing poverty, but that progress is under pressure.

The World Bank estimates that the national poverty rate rose from 18.7 percent in 2022 to 21.4 percent in 2025, adding about 1.4 million people to the ranks of the poor.

Inflation remained high at around 8.5 percent in FY2026, while low-income workers’ wages failed to keep pace with rising prices.

For a family already struggling to pay rent, food, transport, education and medical expenses, an unofficial payment can be devastating.

The problem is compounded by inequality. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics’ Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2022 recorded an income Gini coefficient of 0.499, up from 0.482 in 2016 and 0.458 in 2010.

The richest 10 percent received about 40.92 percent of national income, while the poorest 10 percent received only 1.31 percent. Urban inequality was even higher, with a Gini coefficient of 0.539.

Such inequality creates two very different experiences of citizenship.
For someone with money, connections and influence, access to a service may be relatively easy.

For someone without money or connections, the same service may involve waiting, repeated visits, humiliation or unofficial payments.

This is why the question of honesty cannot be separated from equality before the law and equal access to public resources.

Healthcare provides another painful example. Bangladesh continues to rely heavily on out-of-pocket health spending.

A World Bank assessment noted that out-of-pocket payments reached about 73 percent of total health expenditure in 2021, placing a heavy financial burden on households.

An estimated 5.2 million people were pushed below the US$1.90-a-day poverty line by high out-of-pocket health spending, according to cited WHO research.

For a poor family, illness can therefore create a second poverty trap: income is lost because a family member cannot work, while savings are consumed by medical treatment.

Food insecurity creates another layer of vulnerability. Current The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis estimates that 15.3 million people in Bangladesh experienced acute food insecurity between May and August 2026, including around 483,000 people facing emergency-level food insecurity.

How can we discuss honesty meaningfully with a person who is uncertain whether the family will have enough food tomorrow?

Again, this does not justify corruption or dishonesty. Rather, it demonstrates why ethical behaviour must be supported by functioning institutions and social protection.

The crisis also extends into employment. Around 84.9 percent of Bangladesh’s workers were in informal employment, according to the Labour Force Survey 2022 cited by the International Labour Organization.

Informal workers frequently lack secure contracts, social protection, retirement benefits and predictable incomes.

The ILO’s 2026 analysis further points to underemployment, informality, falling real wages and declining paid employment as continuing labour-market challenges, particularly affecting young people and women.

This is the larger vicious circle: poverty produces insecurity; insecurity increases dependence; dependence increases vulnerability to exploitation; corruption increases the cost of basic services; inequality concentrates opportunities among those with resources and connections; and the resulting frustration further weakens trust in institutions.

Then society asks ordinary people to remain honest.
We should but we must also build a system in which honesty is possible, practical and respected.

The solution is therefore not simply more speeches about morality. Bangladesh needs institutional reform.

Public services should become simpler, transparent and increasingly digital, reducing face-to-face opportunities for bribery.

Government transactions, procurement, licensing and recruitment should be transparent and independently audited.

Complaints mechanisms must actually work. Those who report corruption should be protected rather than harassed.

The rule of law must apply equally to the powerful and the powerless.
Most importantly, punishment alone will not solve the problem.

The probability of being caught and punished must become higher than the benefit of being corrupt. At the same time, honest public servants must be protected and rewarded.

Education also matters. Children should learn that honesty is not merely a moral lesson but a civic responsibility.

Schools and families need to teach integrity, empathy, respect for others and responsibility for public resources.

But society must also stop romanticising wealth obtained through questionable means.

If people who accumulate enormous wealth through political connections, corruption or tax evasion are publicly celebrated while honest workers struggle to survive, the social message becomes contradictory.

We cannot tell young people to be honest while allowing them to see dishonesty producing wealth, influence and social status.

Bangladesh therefore needs a new social contract around honesty.
Citizens must reject bribery where they can. Officials must refuse to demand it.

Businesses must compete fairly. Political leaders must stop protecting corrupt networks. Institutions must apply rules equally. The wealthy must not receive privileges unavailable to the poor.

Honesty cannot flourish in an environment where justice is negotiable, healthcare is financially devastating, employment is insecure, inequality is widening and public services can be purchased through connections.

The challenge is not to excuse dishonesty. It is to understand and dismantle the conditions that reproduce it.

If Bangladesh wants an honest society, it must create a society in which a person does not have to choose between being honest and being able to survive.

That is the real test of good governance. And perhaps the most important question is not simply, “Why are people dishonest?”
What kind of society have we created in which honesty has become so difficult and sometimes so costly to practise?

(The writer is the Editor & CEO of News Network)