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Bangladesh loses 70 billion taka ( about 1 billion U.S. dollars) a year due to corruption, local newspaper Financial Express reported Sunday.
"Had this money been used properly the nation would have progressed further " the country's Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury was quoted as saying.
"After taking the reins of the ACC, I have met and discussed with people of different positions. I came to know about reasons and extent of corruption. Corruption spreads mainly because of a lack of values," he said at a conference here on Saturday.
"Many blame our habits and poverty for corruption. And 70 percent of our population is poor, but not everyone is corrupt. We can't blame corruption on poverty," he added.
He said, due to the corruption by a few people, the country now stands as the number one corrupt nation.
Bangladesh was rated the most corrupt countries of the world by the Germany-based Transparency International (TI).
The current military-backed caretaker government installed in January last year declared a war on corruption to clean up politics before holding general elections before the end of 2008.
So far about 200 former ministers, leaders, lawmakers and business leaders have been arrested and trial of them are on the progress.
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