United News of Bangladesh

The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has been identified as the most corruption-prone public service office in the country, according to the Citizen Perception Survey (CPS) 2025, released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The survey found that 63.29 percent of citizens who sought services from BRTA experienced corruption. BRTA was followed by law enforcement agencies (57.96 percent) and passport offices (57.45 percent) on the corruption list. The report was unveiled on Wednesday at the BBS auditorium in Agargaon, Dhaka. According to the survey, 31.67 percent of respondents admitted to having paid bribes directly while receiving government services in the past 12 months. Read more: BRTA chairman wants to see accident-free roads The rate of bribery was significantly higher among men (38.62 percent) compared to women (22.71 percent). An overwhelming 98.48 percent of respondents reported paying bribes in cash. BBS conducted the nationwide CPS between February 6 and 23, 2025, covering 64 districts. Data were collected through interviews with 84,807 respondents aged 18 and above (39,894 men and 44,913 women) from 45,888 households across 1,920 Primary Sampling Units (PSUs). The findings show that 63.29 percent of respondents who interacted with BRTA officials admitted to paying bribes to receive services, making it the most corruption-prone government office among those surveyed, while the least bribery was recorded in government and autonomous banks and insurance offices (2.98 percent), public educational institutions (2.94 percent), and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) itself, which stood at 1.99 percent. Law enforcement agencies ranked second, where 61.94 percent of service recipients said they had to pay bribes. This was followed by the passport office at 57.45 percent and the land registry (cadastre) office at 54.92 percent, highlighting persistent corruption in citizen-facing and documentation-related services. Read more: Road crashes claim 380 lives in July: BRTA More than half of the respondents also reported bribery in interactions with judges, magistrates, prosecutors and other legal officials (53.77 percent), and the land record, acquisition and settlement offices (51.40 percent). At the mid-range, bribery was reported by 44.68 percent of respondents dealing with accounts offices, while customs, excise, and VAT offices recorded 35.37 percent. Local government offices at the union parishad, pourashava, and upazila levels stood at 32.91 percent, followed by district and upazila election offices at 26.04 percent. Lower levels of bribery were reported in social security and welfare offices (19.20 percent) and public utility services such as electricity, water and gas (18.41 percent). Interactions with elected local government representatives (14.94 percent) and income tax or revenue offices (14.08 percent) showed relatively lower but still notable corruption. Bribery incidence was lowest in the district and upazila administration (11.33 percent), agricultural offices (9.07 percent), and among public healthcare providers, including doctors and nurses (8.05 percent). Only 7.91 percent reported bribery involving elected Members of Parliament. The data underscore deep-rooted governance challenges, particularly in transport, law enforcement and land-related services, where citizens’ dependence on officials continues to fuel informal payments despite ongoing reform efforts. The survey assessed progress on six indicators of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16, based on citizens’ perceptions and experiences related to security, good governance, quality of public services, corruption, access to justice, and discrimination. Read more: CNG drivers block road outside BRTA prompting Mohakhali-Uttara tailback Nationally, the average household size was four members, with 81.97 percent male-headed households and 18.03 percent female-headed households. On security, 84.81 percent of citizens reported feeling safe walking alone in their neighbourhoods after sunset while the sense of safety was lower among women (80.67 percent) compared to men (89.53 percent). The feeling of safety inside one’s home after dark was higher at 92.54 percent. In terms of governance, only 27.24 percent of citizens believed they could influence government decisions, while this figure dropped to 21.99 percent regarding political decision-making. Nationally, about 24.62 percent of respondents felt that the country’s political system is inclusive and responsive, with little difference between rural (24.47 percent) and urban (24.91 percent) areas. Regarding public service delivery over the past year, 47.12 percent of respondents accessed government health services, while 40.93 percent reported that at least one of their children attended a government primary or secondary school. Besides, 73.77 percent sought other government services such as identity cards or civil registration. Satisfaction levels varied across services: 72.69 percent for healthcare, 81.56 percent for primary education, 78.18 percent for secondary education, and 66.91 percent for other government services. The survey also found that 16.16 percent of citizens experienced disputes or conflicts in the past two years. Among them, 83.60 percent had access to some form of dispute resolution, either formal (such as courts) or informal (such as community leaders). Of these, 41.34 percent used formal institutions, while 68.96 percent relied on informal mechanisms. On discrimination, 19.31 percent of respondents reported experiencing some form of discrimination. Read more: BRTA provides financial assistance to families of road crash victims in Joypurhat The main bases were socio-economic status (6.82 percent) and gender (4.47 percent). Incidents occurred most frequently within families (49.72 percent), in public transport or open spaces (34.82 percent), and at workplaces (24.85 percent). Only 5.37 percent of victims reported such incidents to the authorities.

Sentenced to three years in jail in a bribery case, suspended Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Mizanur Rahman has appealed to the High Court seeking acquittal in the case. “The copy of ex-DIG Mizan’s appeal has been received by the Anti-Corruption commission (ACC). The single bench of HC Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman is likely to hear the appeal,” said Md Khurshid Alam Khan, senior lawyer of ACC to UNB on Monday. Earlier on February 23, Dhaka Special Court-4 judge Sheikh Najmul Alam pronounced the judgement in this case. The court sentenced ACC director Khandaker Enamul Basir to eight years imprisonment with Tk 80 lakh fine and Mizan to three years. Basir was sentenced three years jail term for bribery and five years jail term under money laundering act but he will have to spend five years in prison as the two punishments will be served simultaneously, said the court. DIG Mizan was an additional commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP). He was withdrawn on January 9, 2019 following the allegation of threatening a female news presenter of a private television channel. READ: Bribery case: Judgment against ex-DIG Mizan, another on Feb 23 He had also reportedly married a woman forcibly and tortured her. Mizan allegedly picked the 25-year-old woman up in July, 2017 and then forcibly married her. He had also implicated her in a false case whereby she was arrested and remained in jail for three weeks. Earlier on June 24,2019 ACC director Monjur Morshed filed the case against DIG Mizan, his wife Sohelia Anar Ratna, nephew sub-inspector Mahmudul Hasan and younger brother Mahbubur Rahman. According to the case statement, the ACC found that DIG Mizan concealed information of wealth worth Tk 3.7 crore in his wealth statement. Then director of ACC Enamul Basir was made the investigation officer in the case. During the investigation DIG Mizan accused Basir of claiming Tk 40 lakh as bribe for acquitting him from the charges. Following the allegation, another ACC director Monjur Morshed was made the investigation officer in the case, withdrawing Basir. A three-member probe body was formed led by ACC director Sheikh Mohammad Fanafillah to look into the allegations of bribery. On July 16, 2019, Sheikh Mohammad Fanafillah filed the case over the bribery scandal against Mizan and Basir. On April 16, 2020, a Dhaka court indicted the two and directed the official beginning of the trial in this case.

The High Court has summoned Alamgir Hossain, ACC assistant director, to explain allegations of bribery during investigation against him. He has been asked to appear in person to court on November 7 to explain the matter. The court also issued a rule asking why he would not be charged with bribery. On Monday the HC bench of Justice Md. Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice SM Mojibur Rahman passed the order. READ: HC rules on govt decision to not provide new household gas connections Advocate Kamal Hossain was in favor of the application. Advocate Md. Asif Hasan was in favor of the ACC. Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik and Assistant Attorney General Anna Khanam Kali represented the state. It was learned that Alamgir Hossain was investigating an ACC case against the district registrar of Pirojpur, Abdul Quddus Hawladar and his wife Mahinur Begum. Abdul Quddus placed an application to the ACC chairman seeking change of Alamgir Hossain, the investigating officer at the case, alleging that he was soliciting bribes by calling the district registrar's brother. But the ACC chairman did not respond so he filed a writ petition to the High Court. On March 8, the primary hearing of the case, HC asked for the call records of Abdul Quddus Hawladar's brother and ACC's assistant director Alamgir Hossain from July 2019 to February 2021. READ: HC writ seeks investigation commission on Aug 15 tragedy Adv. Amin Uddin Manik said the records showed that the ACC assistant director had several phone conversations with the elder brother of the accused instead of calling the accused (regarding the investigation). For this reason, the HC has summoned the assistant director of the ACC, he said.

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Chairman Iqbal Mahmood on Tuesday said the commission will not allow corruption, bribery or harassment in the process of Monthly Pay Order (MPO) registration of educational institutions.

Fiat Chrysler is moving to dismiss a racketeering lawsuit filed by rival General Motors, denying allegations that it bribed union officials to impose higher labor costs on GM.