Well that’s the grand masters opera, or the biggest spectacle like Broad Way. But there are hundreds of small theater companies that play an integral part in this game. Let’s look at those for once. They are the ones that quietly play their part, we hardly ever know their names but together they are the most important players. They are the Nazguls, unlike Nine in The Lord of the Rings we have millions of them. The biggest wizards seat in a castle called the Secretariat.

We all see the corruption of the politicians because still they’re the only part of the system that has to answer to the people to some extent. They either answer to their constituency, or to party officials or to the media. What about all the quite, silent intellectuals, in Safari suits? If politicians are supposed to make the policies, the bureaucrats are supposing to implement them. In a country like ours, where a minister might come from any background, bureaucrats always hold the key. If the government is a machine then the bureaucrats are the parts of it and politicians are the fuel. Do we ever ask them, if they are doing their jobs in time or not. What about their transparency and accountability? We all know corruption in bureaucracy is all over. The most powerful man in that corridor is the peon, because before an Oracle database can find out, he’ll know where your file is and who need to release it. It’s a place where you have to go to make everyone happy, “ektu khushi koirey den”, like a child in an amusement park; doesn’t matter how sad you might be. That is the system that all of these people work in year after year and we point to the men who go there for five years. As if they go there with a broom to clean dust that they can clean this corruption in a day.  Another trend is observed, all these government officials, who are supposed to be the educated section of our country will work under favorable governments in favorable posts, get ousted by the opposing force, get retired and start politics or a think tank organization. Some would work under all government, get retired and become the experts in media with their three magic analysis tools “could”, “should”, “would”. Now some would even become expert commentators to the government itself, they “advise” everyone. But none would point to change this bureaucratic system. None would say why our brightest and the bests of these generations not joining the system.

We see exclusive on television channels on how they caught a policy inspector taking bribe on the street or have a network of people collecting their share of the society’s wealth! We feel so proud of our ever growing, ever strong, everlasting Duracell media and share the video all over the internet. It’s a day of victory of democracy, and I did my part by clicking ‘share the video’ on Facebook to make it even stronger. I want to ask those news channel how come they never show any news program about the traffic police officer who has to ask for lift at twelve o’clock at night to a CNG passenger after a long days duty, because he has to go home by himself and has no money. I wouldn’t have believed it if it didn’t happen to me. How come nobody shares a story about how a Sub Inspectors position has a ‘fixed’ rate to get a job? If I come from a lower middle class family and had to spend money to get to that position, what job enthusiasm do I have to do any good? You expect him to be honest and motivated on a five thousand taka job with no respect in the social structure. Did anyone do a story on the constable who has his family in a one room house, only to protect and serve the ones whose pets spend more in luxury then that constable’s one month salary?? You’ll only hear about the SI who made millions or the habildar who owns a hotel.

We all talk about how student politics should be banned. Even many former student leaders show their disgust on paper articles and seminars. Newspapers show how many students died, and how many classes were canceled because of clashes. Fair enough, even I think it should be banned until reformed. Well how about the Red, Blue, Pink panels? Who’s stopping them to bring politics in classrooms? What about a little disgust showed on their dreams to get a little close to the “precious”? I always wondered people talk about our main two political leaders being illiterate or “BA paash”. But all these ex VCs, academics that surround them, what do they see in them? Some even wrote books on how great and important these leaders political zeal is. Do you ever wonder that they are more a courtier then advisor to these leaders? Who’s pointing out their roles in making these politicians blind in a clear bubble? I guess none.

Meter readers made millions and the entire country roared “banish these demons”. How about the people who paid them? You build five storied building in a place that was meant for two storied. You take two lines of electricity in your store. Aren’t these corruptions? You don’t want to pay the bill for the amount you used, and we only point finger to the meter reader. Did you go to Dhanmondi recently? I don’t see any two storied house with yards anymore. Overnight we have turned it into a slum of high rises. No one left an inch for roads. Shopping centers are built in housing plots. And people expect electricity, sewerage, water, and no traffic on roads! Who’s asking these land owners that you are the source of the corruption! Remember our valiant minister shouting at builders and condemning them as land pirates? That’s the maximum the poor man can do. Because we made sure those pirates can unite and become stronger than ever, I just saw an ad of a joint venture of Jamuna and Bashundhara group. That’s the reality and that’s your corruption.

Transparency International this time at least ranked us out of the top ten corrupt countries in the list. I thank them for that. They pointed out the lack of transparency in the government sector and over the board corruption. That includes us too. When we say, most of our population lives in village and they are hard working people and have no access to corruption then you haven’t heard or seen a village politician or businessman. Neither have you had lands taken by relatives or tin and doors taken from school and mosque by villagers. A system of corruption doesn’t start by just a handful of people. It involves the parent who supplied ‘nokol’ to his son in exam, to the doctor who just takes the salary from his village health complex posting to provide the service in a busy private practice in the city. It involves the teacher who takes regular classes at ‘home’ and the system that pays them 5000 taka and expects to live a decent life. It comes in black coats, olive caps or white beard. This system is powered by the corruption of the people, by the people only for themselves .

money money money

US$ 1.6 billion is a lot of money to pay as a penalty, but even then I was concentrating more on the driving. My ears perked up, however, when one of the recipients of the bribes was named as the son of a former prime minister of Bangladesh.

It started with a 30-year old law in the USA: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) that prohibits US companies from bribing foreign officials for contracts. Siemens AG is a German company but are subject to FCPA because its shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The charges against Siemens are detailed in the US Securities and Exchange Commission complaint:

2. During this period, Siemens-made Thousands of separate payments to third parties in ways that obscured the purpose for, and the ultimate recipients of, the money. At least 4,283 of those payments, totaling approximately $1.4 billion, were used to bribe government officials in return for business to Siemens around the world. Among the transactions on which Siemens paid bribes were those to design and bu.ild metro transit lines in Venezuela; metro trains and signaling devices in China; power plants in Israel; high voltage transmission lines in China; mobile telephone networks in Bangladesh; telecommunications projects in Nigeria; national identity cards in Argentina; medical devices in Vietnam, and Russia; trafEc control systems in Russia; refineries in Mexico; and mobile communications networks in Vietnam. Siemens also paid kickbacks to Iraqi in connection with sales of power stations and equipment to Iraq under the United Nations Oil for Food Program. Siemens earned over $1.1 billion in profits on these fourteen categories of transactions that comprised 332 individual projects or individual sales.

In section 19 of the same report, the SEC alleged, and Siemens later agreed, that it funneled money to corrupt officials through what Siemens called “Business Consultants.” For us, the relevant sections start on page 19:

47. Between 2004 and 2006, Siemens COM paid approximately $5.3 rnillion in bribes to government ofiioials in Bangladesh in connection with a oocntract with the
Bangladesh Telegraph & Telephone Board (“BTTB”) to install mobile telephone services. The total value ofthe contract was approximately $40.9 million. The payments made to three business oonsultants pursuant to sham arrangements calling for services associated with the mobile telephone project. The ultimate recipients ofthe payments included the son of the then·Prime Minister in Bangladesh, the Minister of the Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications in Bangladesh, and the BTTB Director of Procurement.

ln addition, Siemens Limited Bangladesh, a regional company, hired relatives of two other BTTB and Ministry of Post and Telecom oflicials. Most ofthe money paid to the business consultants was routed through correspondent accounts in the United States, with at least one payment originating from a U.S. account. Since approximately September 2004, a Siemens business consultant who served as a principal payment interrnediary on the Bangladesh bribe payments has been resident in the United States.

It is alleged by the Bangladesh Anti Corruption Commission that parts of the bribe received by Mr. Arafat Rahman Koko from Siemens is included in the 11.66 crore taka frozen by the Singapore government. Additional details are available from a Prothom Alo report:

The Anti-corruption commission and the attorney general of Bangladesh is also sitting on a confession and a statement from the person who helped Mr. Rahman open the bank account in Singapore.

[See the sentence about the "QC Shipping" employee who advised Koko? This is Salahuddin Kader Chowdhury (SaKa)'s shipping company. Hmm.. I wonder if the ACC is looking into questioning this helpful international fiance expert about any bank accounts in Singapore that Mr. SaKa Chowdhury owns.]

The Dubai-based telecom company that also paid into Arafat Rahman’s account? That would be Warid Telecom, and we wrote about this in June 2007.

The major player in Bangladesh, and one who stands to lose his high-paying job as the country director of Nokia-Siemens in Bangladesh, is one Mr. Khaled Shams. But then again, 2 months ago TeleTalk and Nokia-Siemens announced a contract to expand TeleTalk’s network. I guess it will be business as usual, and the contract between a corrupt company headed by a corrupt executive and another corrupt government agency headed by corrupt government employees will be consummated.

Yes, there are also specifically named Bangladesh government employees in the investigation report conducted by Debevoise & Plimpton, a US law firm hired by Siemens to conduct an independent investigation. The Prothom-Alo report names those individuals, who are now senior executives in TeleTalk or BTCL.

The caretaker government has struck a deal with Khaleda Zia, and Mr. Arafat Rahman is outside the country because of that. Even if Awami League comes to power after the election, I don’t anticipate them pursuing these charges too vigorously, because they have to protect their own skin for the future when BNP comes to power. So I guess Mr. Rahman will be safe in Bangkok or whereever he wishes to remain. That will very likely mean The TeleTalk and BTCL employees as well as Mr. Shams will not face criminal prosecution in Bangladesh, for the fear that they will start singing and implicate Koko. BNP doesn’t want that, AL doesn’t want that, and neither does the Army-backed Caretaker government.

I guess crime does pay.

Related posts:

• চোরের মা’র বড় গলা
• Telecom corruption: Every country should check Siemens court papers

A magistrate’s court sent Arafat Rahman Coco, younger son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to jail. Photo: Munir uz Zaman, DRIK News

Writing isn’t always easy. With competing priorities and the need to write pieces that will engage readers, sometimes I have stared at the computer for a while between sentences. But then again, sometimes the stories just pour out of me. In this case, the headline of this story was absolutely spontaneous. For the benefit of those who are not familiar with it, this is an old Bangla phrase, not my creation.

Before going into the details, lets examine the facts:

• Siemens, a Telecom and IT giant, recently agreed to pay a US$ 1.3 billion fine to the US and German governments to settle a number of bribery charges.
• Out of is huge amount, Siemens Bangladesh will pay US$ 500,000 to the US government to settle charges that in 2004, it bribed government officials and Arafat Rahman Koko, son of the then prime minister, Khaleda Zia
• The government of Singapore froze assets amounting to Tk. 11,66,00,000 (eleven crore sixty six lacs) belonging to Arafat Rahman Koko.

On December 19th, one of BNP’s joint secretary-generals, claimed that this is an effort by the Anti-Corruption Commission to hurt BNP, because ACC did this briefing before any investigation. This was done at a press conference held at Mrs. Zia’s office. Conspicuously absent from this press conference was any claim that this money did not belong to Mr. Rahman, or that he had a legitimate source for this income and a legitimate and legal reason to bank this money outside Bangladesh.

On December 22, Mirza Abbas, another joint secretary-general, came back with this:

The ACC’s move to freeze the bank account of Koko, youngest son of former premier Khaleda Zia is clearly in violation of the electoral code of conduct and it also went against the interest of BNP.

This is a real headscratcher. Mr. Rahman is not a candidate in this election. How is this a violation of electoral code of conduct? Just because his mother is a former PM, he should get immunity from anti-corruption investigations?

To be fair, I agree that this may tarnish the image of BNP. But in that case, I have two pieces of advice to BNP:

• 1. If BNP can, deny that the funds frozen in Singapore belong to Mr. Arafat Rahman
• 2. If BNP can not deny that, explain why he was banking so much money outside the country (which is against Bangladeshi laws), and show that he paid income tax on that income

Remember: If you are not prepared to do the time, don’t commit the crime

Learn about the abuse of power and corruption of the former law minister of the 4 party alliance Moudud Ahmed.

Uploaded by: Firedekhun