Corruption in public service delivery has worsened sharply in Bangladesh, with more than four out of every five households experiencing corruption and nearly two-thirds forced to pay bribes to access services, according to a nationwide survey released by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on Thursday.
The survey found that 81.6 percent of households encountered corruption in at least one service sector in 2025, while 63.6 percent reported paying bribes.
Compared with the previous survey conducted in 2023, the proportion of households affected by corruption rose by 15.1 percent and the incidence of bribery increased by 25.2 percent.
TIB estimated that citizens paid Tk 12,633 crore in bribes nationwide during 2025, an amount equivalent to 1.58 percent of the revised national budget for FY2024-25 and 0.23 percent of Bangladesh’s gross domestic product.
Passport services and those provided by the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) remained the most corruption-prone sectors, according to the findings of the “Corruption in Service Sectors: National Household Survey 2025”, based on responses from 15,715 households across the country.
The survey paints a picture of deeply entrenched corruption despite the expansion of digital services in several sectors.
According to TIB, 98.1 percent of households that paid bribes did so because they believed services could not be obtained otherwise. In 91.2 percent of cases, officials or employees of the relevant institutions were directly involved in collecting the payments.
“The findings indicate that corruption has become institutionalised in many service sectors,” TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman told a press conference in Dhaka.
He warned that corruption disproportionately harms poor and vulnerable groups, noting that rural households, low-income families, women, Indigenous communities and persons with disabilities often face greater barriers in accessing public services.
Public trust remains weak
The survey also highlighted a severe lack of confidence in anti-corruption and complaint mechanisms.
More than half of respondents said they did not know how to file complaints against corruption, while only 1.4 percent were aware of the government’s Grievance Redress System (GRS).
Among households that experienced corruption, only 10.3 percent lodged complaints. Of those complaints, more than one-fifth were not accepted and no action was taken in over half of the cases.
Many respondents viewed corruption as an unavoidable part of obtaining services. More than 61 percent of those who did not complain said they believed reporting corruption would be futile, while nearly one-third feared harassment or retaliation.
The survey found that only 29.5 percent of respondents were aware of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), and just 0.3 percent had ever submitted complaints to the agency.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the findings reflected a significant crisis of public confidence in the country’s anti-corruption watchdog and called for strengthening the ACC’s independence, credibility and effectiveness.
Poor households bear heavier burden
Although the average amount paid in bribes per household fell slightly to Tk 5,124 from Tk 5,680 in 2023, TIB said the overall burden increased because bribery became more widespread.
On average, households spent 1.7 percent of their annual income on bribes. For families living below the poverty line, the burden was significantly higher, reaching 5.1 percent of annual income in the five most corruption-prone sectors.
The survey found that poor households spent the equivalent of 78 percent of a month’s income to obtain passport services, with more than one-third of that amount going directly toward bribes.
Similarly, low-income families spent an average of 34 percent of their monthly income in bribes to access law-enforcement services, while in some cases the payments exceeded four times a household’s monthly earnings.
Call for reforms
TIB attributed the persistence of corruption to impunity, weak accountability, low public awareness and inadequate transparency in public institutions.
The anti-corruption watchdog urged the government to adopt a comprehensive anti-corruption strategy, fully digitalise public services, strengthen complaint mechanisms, require annual asset declarations by public officials and improve transparency in service delivery.
The organisation also called for stronger legal action against corruption and greater citizen participation in monitoring public institutions. The latest survey, the 11th in a series conducted since 1997, suggests that despite repeated reform efforts, corruption remains deeply embedded in Bangladesh’s public service system, imposing a growing financial burden on ordinary citizens and eroding trust in state institutions.