Staff Reporter :
The country lost up to Tk 50,835 crore in the last 15 years due to corruption in development projects implemented by the Roads and Highways Department, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) said yesterday.
TIB revealed a research outcome titled “Challenges of governance in the implementation of road and highway development projects,” on Wednesday at its Dhanmondi office, estimated that the development projects saw 23–40 percent corruption of its work orders.
Taking this into account, the country lost Tk 29,230-50,835 crore in corruption between 2009-10 and 2023-24, the organisation disclosed.
The organisation said this graft took place in collusion with influential people including ministers, members of parliament, politicians, bureaucrats and contractors.
The sectors of the corruption were — bribe given for getting work orders for construction and bills for contractors, bribe given to politicians and bureaucrats and extortion by local politicians and others.
TIB conducted interviews with 73 individuals, including contractors, RHD officials, and engineers, and analysed the costs of 48 development projects, gathering information from various sources to calculate the percentage of funds lost to bribery, corruption, and irregularities in each project.
The projects analysis was completed between the 2017-18 and 2021-22 fiscal years, with their implementation starting from 2010-11 to 2018-19.
They reported that from the fiscal year 2009-10 to 2023-24, the total government allocation for road and bridge projects was Tk 169,450 crore.
From 2013-14 to 2023-24, 72 per cent of the total expenditure was awarded to just 15 contractors, the report revealed.
TIB’s Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said that there is a ‘’Tri-party collusion’’ among politicians, bureaucrats, and contractors in public interest projects. This corruption has institutionalized itself from the grassroots to the highest levels.
He noted that between 23 to 40 per cent of funds are embezzled through bribery in the roads and highways sector. If the tri-party “syndicate” is not broken, no anti-corruption efforts will succeed.
“Political reform and ensuring transparency and accountability in the entire process of the project planning to implementation are mandatory to reduce the state loss,” he added
The study was conducted by TIB’s senior research fellow Mohammad Zulkarnain and research associate Mohammad Mustafa Kamal.