The attached article from the Huffington Post this week is not one of our regular sources for PFM Board postings! However, it resonated with me on a number of levels.
I lived and worked in Bangladesh during the period 2000-2001 with further visits in 2003, have kept a ''watching brief'' on the progress of the country since then and still know people there so it doesn't feel like a totally remote incident.
Corruption and the legal impunity of powerful officials has received much coverage, as one of the underlying causes of the tragedy, alongside the spotlight also being put on wider Western business practices in the garment industry. The more I work on anti corruption matters, the more frequently impunity is raised as a prime cause of the levels of corruption in a country. Similar situations to the one in Bangladesh exist in many other other countries.
The article clearly sets out the real human costs and some of the root causes, including impunity, which support the continuation of corrupt practises. Anti corruption policies and strategies will always have limited impact without also seriously tackling these root causes.
