Climate change, graft 'threaten poverty cut'
Thu March 4, 2010 - 10:40pm BdST
Climate change and corruption threaten poverty reduction in Bangladesh, the UK's Department for International Development Parliamentary Select Committee says in a report.

Climate change and corruption threaten poverty reduction in Bangladesh, the UK's Department for International Development Parliamentary Select Committee says in a report.
The United States is committed to helping Bangladesh rid itself of corruption and develop its full potential through good governance, said US Ambassador James F Moriarty as he painted a sordid picture of pervasive malpractice. "The US promises to work hand-in-hand with the government of Bangladesh to mitigate the costs of corruption and its impact in Bangladesh," he told his audience at the National Conference on Anti-Corruption Reform Efforts for Women Entrepreneurs under USAID'S Progati Program yesterday.
Recruitment of more than 6,000 health assistants has been stalled for the last two months due to allegations of massive corruption in the recruitment process. The shortage of health assistants is badly hindering primary health care services. Officials from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) admitted that the civil surgeon's office and even the union, upazila and district level Awami League leaders accepted bribes from candidates.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wednesday ordered stern actions to stop all corruption and irregularities in Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited as she unveiled new logo and livery and inclusion of Boeing aircrafts in the company fleet. ‘You have to curb all sorts of corruption and irregularities with an iron hand,’ she said at a programme at the VVIP Terminal of the Zia International Airport, reported United News of Bangladesh.
Some 313 employees including 42 teachers and 61 consultants of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University may lose their jobs or posts as per the recommendation of the parliamentary sub-committee formed to investigate massive corruption at the university. The parliamentary sub-committee submitted its report to the parliamentary standing committee on January 27.
Former Secretary-General of Amnesty International Irene Khan Thursday revealed that corruption remains main problem in Bangladesh as it turned life of the right-deprived downtrodden more disastrous. "Change has come to many countries but it is yet come in our country. Corruption in the country is massive," she said in her stark observations that she has also laid down in a book from her experience from leading the global watchdog on human rights.
The government proposes to amend the existing government servants (conduct) rules incorporating provisions to prohibit accepting or demanding dowry during marriage and receiving gifts on occasions like marriage and birthday celebrations of government officials and employees with a view to stopping corruption in the bureaucracy.
Chairman of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Md Golam Rahman today said Taka 1,00,000 crore would be added to yearly revenue income if corruption could be contained to a tolerable level.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday said the country has come out of the politics of terrorism, killing and corruption in last one year after the Awami League-led government assumed the power.
The Awami League-led government, now one year in office, is yet to take any measures to materialize its election manifesto that pledged multi-pronged measures to fight corruption which plagued the society in the past decades. Fighting corruption was the second of the five priority pledges of the Awami League which won a landslide victory in the December 29, 2008 general elections.