Amir Mohammad Sayem
Of course, brokers are commonly found and active in different government departments or agencies including the passport office, hospitals, land record and settlement offices, road transport authorities, law-enforcing agencies, courts and educational institutions in Bangladesh. Here, brokers are those individuals who are unofficial and illegal middlemen working in close connection with officials of different government departments or agencies for illegal monetary gains for their own and officials. But such type of brokers should not be misunderstood with officially recognized or legal brokers who are individuals or firms who act as an intermediary between an investor and a securities exchange, or arrange transactions between a buyer and a seller for a commission, or act as a seller or as a buyer becomes.
But the harmful impacts of activities of so-called brokers can be of different sorts such as the mismanagement in public offices and sufferings of service seekers. Of course, mismanagement exists in public offices at different tiers without brokers but their presence increases the chance of mismanagement. Moreover, the sufferings of service seekers are enormous. Indeed, service seekers do not get services from designated authorities, they require the payment of bribes or extra amounts for getting deserved services, services are sometimes delayed, or service seekers may not get services at all. But these may depend on the types of services sought. For example, hospital-based brokers get potential patients admitted to private clinics or take bribes in exchange for providing seats and passport office-based brokers take extra money to help get a passport. Though mass people, especially those who have no linkage with high-ups, are more sufferers, high-ups also suffer from the so-called activities of brokers.
The positive side is that the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) carried out massive raids against brokers at hospitals, passport offices and road and transport authority offices a few days back that led to the arrest of around 500 brokers. According to different media sources, the RAB mobile court has also fined and jailed brokers. Such a move of the elite force is obviously very good and praiseworthy. Of course, the raids came at a time when medical college hospitals, passport offices and Bangladesh road and transport authority offices are witnessing an increase in the number of so-called brokers. Given that such moves continue, or are carried out at least sometimes, the potentials for changes in such practices will increase.
But an important question remains on whether raids against brokers alone can end the so-called activities of brokers in different public offices. Of course, raids alone will not end such practices altogether. This is because there is a nexus between officials and brokers in different public departments or agencies. There are reciprocal benefits. While government officials are benefited by brokers, brokers are benefited by officials in monetary terms. This indicates that so-called brokers may be encouraged and re-supported by some so-called officials of different government departments or agencies after a certain time if the unscrupulous nexus itself is not ended. It is undeniable that different sorts of mismanagement or corrupt practices in public, private and other organizations were resumed in the past with some differences after a certain period of raids or crackdowns.
It is further notable that such nexus is not a formal one. It occurs with informal agreements between some officials and brokers. Consequently, brokers can make passports done very quickly, can manage beds for patients and do many other illegal activities in connection with concerned officials. But, of course, different officials can have links with different brokers, meaning that all brokers do not have linkages with some specific officials and there can be a number of informal groupings between brokers and officials depending on the size and importance of government offices. As already noted, so-called brokers in government hospitals motivate patients to receive treatment from private hospitals referring to doctors affiliated with respective nexus. As different doctors have affiliations with different private clinics, brokers encourage patients to take services from private clinics accordingly.
But, undeniably, such raids of the RAB can reduce the so-called activities of brokers at least to a certain extent, although the complete end of such practices is not possible. In fact, different sorts of unscrupulous activities were reduced because of raids and arrests in the past such as drug dealing and trafficking. Furthermore, such raids give a clear message that brokers are not unaccountable altogether, even though they have strong connections with high officials, and, probably, with political leaders. Of course, officials may withdraw or stop their supports at least for a certain time. These alternatively mean that some short-term good outcomes of such raids are undeniable with the possibility of some long-term gains, though the extent of short and long-term gains may be arguable.
But, of course, bringing out desired outcomes in the short and the long run requires ending the very nexus. In this respect, some questions can be relevantly raised: Is it possible to end the nexus, given the complex nature of bureaucracy, relations of brokers and broker-supported officials with political leaders and a limited scope of punishment of government officials? To what extent, should officials be made accountable to break the nexus? To what extent, should brokers be brought under justice for ending their so-called activities? Who will act for ending the nexus? Who will make sure that the so-called nexus will not be re-established later? Of course, ending the nexus does not seem to be an easy task at all since bringing all responsible officials of the so-called nexus into punishment is not possible, even if brokers can be arrested and punished for a certain time. Consequently, raids alone are not sufficient for bringing out desired changes to such undesired nexus-based practices.
There is, thus, no alternative to a long-term approach. As I noted in my several articles published earlier, departmental measures, along with other legal steps, are important to securing accountability and transparency among government officials/employees. But, unsurprisingly, there is a cause for the frustration here. As is criticized, departmental actions are mostly not taken against officials and investigations are sometimes made with an intention to save accused officials. Though some actions are taken, these are meager. This is because the punishment of one government official is sometimes perceived by other officials as an image crisis, higher-level officials do not want their lower officials to be punished on most occasions and officials have good links with political leaders or can make political linkage facing the possibility of punishment. But, undeniably, different government officials/employees are being punished on many occasions, meaning that the possibility of ending the nexus at least to a tolerable level is not impossible altogether. Yet, there is no alternative to a strong political will, along with departmental and other legal measures.
But raids need to be continued because these put significant hindrances to the continuation of so-called activities of the nexus. In this respect, the elite force needs to be given more freedom for making decisions on carrying out such moves. I believe that this force still gives a ray of hope for making some desired changes in undesired practices at different tiers of government, private and other organizations. Undeniably, diverse criticisms against this elite force, including bribery, need to be well-addressed for the desired results of raids. But the potentials of the RAB in bringing out desired changes in various corrupt practices in the country should be realized as much as possible.
