September 30, 2003	Tuesday	Sha’aban 3, 1424

DHAKA, Sept 29: The government of Bangladesh has incurred a financial loss of around Tk 600 crore because of 216 cases of corruption in the first six months of this year.

Persons, including officers and staff, involved in the direct and indirect taxation sector top the list of financial corruption while police, education, local government and health sector personnel lead the corruption race in terms of number.

This disclosure came from the “corruption database research” report of the Transparency International Bangladesh — an organization involved in the social movement against corruption.

Speaking on the occasion, TIB advisor Professor Muzaffar Ahmed said that the findings of the research were based on newspaper reports published in 21 national dailies.

He said that the TIB analysed a total of 874 news reports on corruption from January to June this year, of which 553 were found to have caused financial loss of the government.