National integrity strategy implementation in land administration to prevent corruption in Bangladesh

Corruption in land administration is one of the challenges in implementing the national integrity strategy (NIS) in Bangladesh. Citizens visiting the Land Office have reported many instances of unpleasant experiences. In response to these issues, this study attempted to investigate the challenges of NIS implementation in land administration and possible solutions. Based on in-depth interviews with citizens and public officials, as well as document analysis, the study found that the NIS has helped to modernize land administration in recent years. The Bangladesh government, with the help of young land administration officials, has undertaken several measures to resolve this crisis. However, the improvement in service delivery is, in some ways, nominal compared to the volume of corruption in land administration. The likely reason is the nature of the country’s societal patterns. In practice, local and administrative politics continue to have a significant influence. Therefore, despite good initiatives and appropriate measures, land administration officials have failed to implement the NIS properly. Several other problems are making NIS implementation challenging, such as the lack of skilled manpower and technical support, the tendency to break rules, and other forms of corruption discussed in this study. However, the study found that an alternative approach, namely, “local solutions for local problems” could have more success than the NIS approach. Therefore, this study argues that dynamic, sustainable, and corruption-free land administration in Bangladesh requires a combined approach involving local solutions, innovation, and NIS implementation.