Anti-Graft Body Acts to End Corruption at Chittagong Port

DHAKA, 1 October 2005 — The government has started a massive campaign to get rid of corruption at Bangladesh’s major seaport, report said. An anti-graft watchdog launched the drive to stop corruption at notorious Chittagong seaport, the report said.

A five-member team of the government’s Anti-corruption Commission will directly monitor various departments including customs to root out irregularities at the Chittagong seaport, the Daily Star newspaper reported. The officials visited the port on Thursday to see firsthand how the departments work, Moniruddin Ahmad, who heads the team, was quoted as telling the newspaper.

The commission will set up a permanent office in the port’s customs department to enable complaints to be quickly investigated, the report said. A mobile investigation team will be posted at the port if needed to monitor cargo handling, it said.

“The action against corruption and irregularities ... is launched from today and it would continue until we bring order,” Ahmad was quoted as saying. The port, which processes about 75 percent of Bangladesh’s sea cargo, is infamous for unbridled corruption.

In 2004, a report by the Bangladesh chapter of the Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International said importers and exporters pay an estimated $130 million in bribes each year to move their shipments through the port.

Illegal payoffs are collected at 37 separate points along the handling chain at the port, the group said. Customs clearance for imported goods was the most expensive for shippers, accounting for $112 million in unauthorized transactions, while dockside loading and unloading cost them $6.8 million in bribes annually, it said.

The London-based International Maritime Bureau, that monitors seaports across the world, identified Chittagong as “the world’s second most risky port for doing business” because of rampant corruption, irregularities and frequent general strikes enforced by trade unions.

The government, however, has rejected such allegations as “baseless.” Officials could not be reached immediately for comment.