Navigating public institutions without encountering demands for illicit payments has long been a frustrating reality for ordinary citizens across Bangladesh. From obtaining basic identity documents and land deeds to securing routine utility connections, bureaucratic delays frequently serve as leverage for extortion. In a direct attempt to challenge this systemic malpractice and empower service seekers, two young tech entrepreneurs have launched an innovative digital crowdsourcing portal named Ghush.site—deriving its name from the Bengali word for bribe.
Inspired by global civic-tech initiatives that leverage collective reporting to drive institutional accountability, co-founders Saif Kabir and Shahed Sharif designed and built the website entirely using personal savings. Developed independently without financial backing from foreign donors, international agencies, or non-governmental organisations, the platform operates purely on public engagement and voluntary contributions from ordinary users.
Public participation surged immediately following the site’s public launch. Within its first six days of operation, the portal logged 6,283 individual corruption reports, revealing combined bribe demands exceeding 2.27 billion Bangladeshi Taka (specifically 227.45 crore Taka). A breakdown of the data by administrative division shows that Dhaka Division recorded the highest concentration of grievances, accounting for 2,714 submissions. Chattogram and Rajshahi divisions recorded the next highest volumes of reports. Encouragingly, the metrics also reveal a growing resilience among the public, with at least 23 per cent of complainants explicitly stating that they refused to pay the illegal sums demanded of them.
The founders emphasize that the portal is designed neither as a formal investigative body nor as a replacement for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). To maintain transparency, every published entry carries a clear disclaimer indicating that the report is unverified. Rather than serving as an official legal channel, the platform functions as an open digital ledger, giving citizens visibility into the operational culture and extortion risks associated with specific public offices before they seek services.
Whistleblower protection remains a core operational priority for the platform. Submitting a report requires no registration, user accounts, email addresses, or phone numbers, ensuring complete anonymity for contributors. Furthermore, the portal employs a dedicated moderation team to enforce strict anti-libel guidelines. Any attempt to single out specific civil servants by name, designation, or personal phone number is edited out prior to publication. This safeguard ensures that entries focus strictly on institutional flaws and systemic rent-seeking rather than deteriorating into personal vendettas.
The submission mechanism is deliberately streamlined, taking less than two minutes to complete. Users access the portal, click the reporting interface without logging in, and select the relevant government department, service category, location, and monetary amount involved. After summarizing the outcome of the interaction—strictly avoiding personal identifiers—the entry is queued for moderation before going live on the public feed.
According to Saif Kabir, the ultimate goal of the initiative extends beyond mere statistics. The true measure of success lies in fostering civic consciousness, breaking the culture of silence surrounding administrative extortion, and equipping citizens with the collective confidence needed to refuse unlawful demands.
