Illegal money exchange in public offices

 
The interim government headed by Dr. Muhammad Yunus is under moral obligations to dissolve the unholy alliance between bureaucracy and corruption.

A few years back one day I had to visit a government office in Dhaka to get a particular clearance. It was not my first look at a public office—bureaucratic dillydally, huge stacks of files, indifferent civil servants hardly paying attention to visitors, I found nothing that could uplift my mood. Anyway, the officer I was supposed to see was in a meeting at that time. So, I had to wait for a while.

When he came back, I sprang from my chair since it was essential for me to get that paper but he rushed out of the room saying in a hurry, “I am too occupied today, please meet me tomorrow.” I went there the next day as well, but was not lucky enough to find him unoccupied. So, I kept on going to that office again and again but on every occasion I was shown the same crocodile cub—almost the same sort of excuses. Finally, while I was leaving that office with an upset mind, a clerk of that office approached me and said in a rather whispering tone, “You cannot get your work done in this way. Just make the officer a little happy and things will be fine.” I didn’t have to ask how to make the officer happy. Living in the middle of widespread corruption makes us familiar with various sorts of unfair monetary exchange. I felt disgusted, so I grumbled out of sheer annoyance, “How boring it is to visit the same place repeatedly!”

The clerk instantly quipped, “For you boring, but for the boss it is business.” He said to me rubbing his fingers with one another like people do while counting money.

Once I was traveling from Dhaka to Sylhet by an inter city train. I booked a first class ticket but was surprised to find the compartment overcrowded with passengers—standing and sitting almost on top of each other. It was a hot, stuffy day. The train was moving in a very clumsy way—stopping, dropping and picking up passengers all the way like the local buses plying between Farmgate and Gulistan. One fellow sitting next to me gasped, “What a boring trip!” Another man retorted quickly, “For you boring, but for the train staff business.” This guy made this remark because there are allegations that train staffs take bribes from people without tickets and allow them to travel by first class or other compartments which causes discomfort to the passengers who buy tickets from valid authorities.