New pay scale could fuel bribery 'premiums' without reforms to public admin: TIB

While acknowledging the rationale behind the initiative to increase the salaries and allowances of government employees, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has called for an assessment of the economic capacity to bear such an additional burden.

The organisation also stressed the need for public administration reforms to ensure accountability, professional excellence, and easy access to services for all citizens, who will indirectly fund these expenses.

TIB demanded transparency and accountability to curb public sector corruption and irregularities, warning that failing to do so would turn the new pay scale into an infallible tool for raising bribery premiums.

In a statement on Sunday (25 January), TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said, "The proposed salary hike for government employees will have a direct impact on citizens already burdened by economic crises. No strategy has been formulated to generate the massive funds required for realising the proposal that would provide any corresponding facilities or financial relief for the public.

"Moreover, a conducive environment to sustain such state expenditure has not been established. Above all, has the government considered that increasing salaries and allowances will directly lead to a higher cost of living for the general public, as all sectors, including commodity prices, will experience increased expenditure? Whatever the government's plan may be, what is it? How will it be handled? The government must clarify."

Dr Zaman said that even though taxpayer money pays government employees, it seems like many people think they have the right to bribe, corrupt, and commit illegal acts.

He said, "Evidence suggests that raising salaries in the public sector does not reduce corruption. Instead, the public ultimately bears the burden, as illegal activities like bribery typically grow faster than the pay increase itself.

"There is no reason to believe it will be different this time. Allowing public servants to persist with a lack of service-oriented mindset, unaccountable behavior, and unbridled corruption while meeting their demands for salary hikes for narrow interests is equivalent to mocking the general public."

The TIB executive director also remarked that even if the government finds a reliable way to increase salaries without imposing an additional financial burden on the public, the hike cannot be viewed in isolation.

He said, "If the proposal is considered subject to making all transparency and accountability mechanisms, relevant laws, and regulations mandatory in the public sector, the public might accept it, at least on a trial basis. A primary prerequisite for such an increase must be the annual updating and public disclosure of income, expenditure, and asset statements for all employees at all levels.

"The new pay scale should only apply to those who disclose their annual asset statements; it must not be effective for those who do not. We urge the government to be stringent in this regard."