Corruption, cronyism and irregularities have deeply rooted in our society with almost all the government departments, agencies and autonomous bodies steeped in such unsavory practices. This shows a sign of something ominous awaiting the nation in the future.
First of all, this unbridled corruption has dwarfed the great achievements of the incumbent government under the dynamic stewardship of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who has been advancing the country amid manifold internal and external challenges.
As a result, Bangladesh has been on the threshold of a new era for its massive economic development, setting a benchmark for other countries to be emulated. For instance, Bangladesh is now set to graduate from the LDC status to a developing one by the end of 2026 and an upper middle income country by 2031 and a developed country by 2041.
But beneath the gloss all is not well. Our governments abject failure to rein in corruption that has riddled all the economic sectors and public administration has overshadowed all its political and economic successes achieved over the past 15 years during its consecutive three terms in power.
Large-scale corruption scams have been unearthed one after another taking people by surprise with raising eyebrows how these kinds of top level fraud and bribery incidents committed by the higher echelon of administration under the very nose of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and other government intelligent agencies.
However, ACC once labeled toothless tiger suddenly wakes up to run after some top officials like former Inspector General of Police, Benazir Ahmed, former National Board of Revenue (NBR) member Matiur Rahman and former Army Chief General Aziz Ahmed only after newspapers published stunning reports of their wrongdoings of amassing enormous wealth.
Meanwhile, the latest corruption allegations have smeared our Public Service Commission (PSC) which is entrusted to hire top level cadre and non-cadre officials. At least 17 people, including six officials of PCS, have been detained for their alleged involvement in leaking questions of government job exams.
These PSC officials allegedly formed a nexus with the connivance of some outsiders and they have made around Tk 2 crore by leaking the question papers. They were found involved in leaking questions of the deputy assistant engineer recruitment test of Bangladesh Railway held on July 5. They were also engaged in the leak of questions of multiple non-cadre examinations.
However, PSC has formed a three-member probe committee to address the exam question leak incidents saying that there has been little scope for leaking questions of cadre and non-cadre exams held over the last 12 years.
We are in belief that PSC probe body will investigate the allegations brought against its officials and bring those found guilty to book within the stipulated time-span of 15 working days.
