When one is in the brightly-lit passageways of government buildings he may almost feel the sighs of fatigue with which all citizens are looking -- sighs of dreams which had been painted in the colours of hope. We had imagined a Digital Bangladesh, a place where efficiency would tap-dance to the stroke of the click, and the dark side of corruption would lose its tints and form in the light.
The old scourge, however, did not die; it just put on a new mantle, a new coat of whitewash on the same rotting. It is like an invisible wall and we have to pay an unwritten price to go through it.
Recall those days in 2015. Even then, perhaps direct bribery was prevalent, but many still held hope that one day this mess would be cleared. Even at that time, dependence on middlemen was a cause for concern, but it wasn't as pervasive as it is today.
When digitally, a citizen requests fundamental services such as land registration or issuance of passports, he or she will expect it to be done in a short time. It has been estimated that the average file processing time of the government is deliberately prolonged by 15 days in 2025.
We disclose the depiction through a poetry piece:
Take the case of a young man coming back to the country after spending time abroad seeking a minor adjustment to be made on his passport. He is aware that the work is supposed to be done in seven days. But his file stands untidied on the same table for days. This delay will reach a point when he will be left with no option but to approach that middleman.
To come out of this, we cannot just state that we are frustrated, we have to take decisive action. We cannot leave our directions and suggestions on paper and keep them there; we should adopt them and put them into practice.
First of all, a law-specified time limit has to be announced in relation to all government services and should be obligatory to follow through. A digital time-stamp must be provided in every file. We have to have an objective of cutting down the average service delivery period to less than seven days by 2030.
At the same time, it is necessary to prohibit the entry of middlemen strictly and intensify control. This dark shadow will be greatly eradicated by strengthening video monitoring systems in government offices.
Then there is a need to initiate a digital task flow whereby human participation is limited. An example here would be when a file involving land has taken more than a particular number of days to be processed, the system is supposed to automatically issue a warning to a superior authority. This will be a revolution without a voice in rendering accountability using technology.
In case of sluggishness in the files processing, the reduction of salary or disciplinary measures against the official in question is an option. Similarly, employees operating in a fast and honest manner ought to be rewarded and recognized. It is also essential that the policy of raising the salaries of the government employees to deter small-scale corruption is employed.
Above all, participation of people should be made. An anonymous reporting hotline and application should be introduced, this will assist ordinary citizens to report without any fear. Most importantly, we need awareness campaigns to change the mentality among people. No system is going to be completely successful until we ourselves are free of the temptation of corruption.
It is a hard course, although not an impossibility. We should have it in mind that delivery of corruption-free service is not charity but our inherent right.
Dr Tarnima Warda Andalib is currently working as an Assistant Professor at BRAC University and as a Global Consultant Director at the Oxford Impact Group in the United Kingdom. Dauwood Ibrahim Hassan is currently a graduate student in the Economics Department at Jahangirnagar University and working in the Marketing Department at IDLC Finance PLC.
