Corruption and Development in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has witnessed remarkable developments in different sectors across the country. These developments have been visible and felt everywhere in the urban and rural areas in the last couple of years. However, strong allegations of corruption have often been made in all sorts of development activities, especially infrastructure, education, health, police, judiciary, election commission, and so on. This chapter aims to investigate the nature of corruption that has taken place in development activities and identify the causes and consequences of this corruption. The study is based on secondary data from relevant literature developed in the last decade. Data has been analyzed sector-wise, considering the homogeneity and context of the data collected from the literature. The findings show that corruption in most development activities is an open secret. Concerned officials feel tempted to be involved in corruption since no punishment is meted out to the corrupt. Political affiliation with the ruling party encourages some people to exploit the service seekers. Development activities are hampered, and the common people are frequently affected because of corruption.