Transparency International Bangladesh Slams ‘Compromise’ on Road Extortion

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Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has expressed deep concern over remarks by Road Transport, Rail and Water Transport Minister Shaikh Rabiul Alam, accusing him of attempting to legitimise a serious criminal offence by describing roadside extortion as a form of consensual transaction.

In a statement issued on Friday, TIB also urged the prime minister to give top priority to cleansing his own party to prevent such corruption-facilitating attitudes from taking root.

Responding a day earlier to questions at his secretariat office about extortion in the transport sector, the minister said he did not consider roadside toll collection by transport bodies to be extortion. He argued that owners’ and workers’ associations collect fixed amounts for welfare purposes and described the practice as an “unwritten rule,” adding that it should only be termed extortion when payments are made under compulsion.

TIB strongly condemned the remarks. Its executive director Iftekharuzzaman said the minister’s interpretation contradicts the government’s declared anti-corruption stance.

“Not even 48 hours have passed since the prime minister reaffirmed a commitment to curb corruption,” he said. “In that context, defending extortion in the transport sector — long considered a cancer — is deeply disappointing and undermines the government’s own pledges.”

He added that portraying extortion as a welfare-driven arrangement amounts to endorsing an unethical and collusive system of corruption. According to TIB, the primary victims are transport workers, operators and the general public, who ultimately bear the financial burden.

Iftekharuzzaman further warned that invoking welfare as justification risks perpetuating a long-standing disorderly system in the sector rather than reforming it.

He cautioned that normalising extortion under the label of “compromise” could have wider consequences. Similar arguments, he said, might then be used to justify corrupt practices in other public sectors, including the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), healthcare, education, social protection, law enforcement, the judiciary, passport services, land administration, public procurement, development projects, banking and electricity.

TIB reiterated its call for decisive political action to prevent any attempt to confer legitimacy on practices it considers entrenched corruption and warned that failure to act could weaken public trust in governance and accountability.