‘ACC’s allegiance to the bureaucracy, politicos must end’

Following the chief adviser’s announcement of the heads of six commissions tasked with reforming the judiciary, election system, administration, police, the Anti-Corruption Commission and the constitution, two of the commission chiefs — Iftekharuzzaman and Badiul Alam Majumdar — shared their plans and priorities with Star .
The work plan to deliver the reform proposal for the Anti-Corruption Commission will be prepared after all members of the committee are appointed and terms of reference are agreed upon, said Iftekharuzzaman, the head of the commission for ACC.
The ACC, since its inception in 2004, could not create public trust in its activities, and in fact, contributed to the impunity enjoyed by those in positions of power and their coteries.
This impunity for abuse of power was a key factor that led to the capture of all other state institutions that in turn became the main power structure of authoritarianism.
“That’s why the reform of ACC gets priority among other initiatives to reform the state in the ‘new Bangladesh’,” Iftekharuzzaman said.
Firstly, all the commissioners and top office bearers of the ACC, with few exceptions, were appointed based on partisan political considerations, said Iftekharuzzaman, also the executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh.
“As a result, the allegiance of ACC bureaucracy has remained with the government bureaucracy and their political masters rather than the ACC mandate, resulting in its failure to take action against people in positions of power. This must be stopped.”
Secondly, there are allegations that many ACC officials used their position of privilege to earn illegal income. “We have to find a way to stop this.”
Besides, the ACC was made ineffective and its power was curtailed by bringing several amendments to the Anti-Corruption Commission Act and rules.
“We will propose to amend these to make it time-befitting.”
The ACC was also weakened by bringing amendments to some other related laws.
For example, the government allowed legalising black money using the income tax law and the ACC could not raise questions about it.
Besides, an amendment to the Public Service Act made prior permission from authorities concerned mandatory to arrest government officials.
The Anti-money Laundering Act was amended to curtail the authority of the ACC. “Such acts have to be amended too,” Iftekharuzzaman said.
Thirdly, the ACC will have to work in tandem with other agencies to control corruption. Money laundering, which is a major manifestation of corruption, could not be prevented by the ACC alone.
Several organisations including Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, the National Board of Revenue, the Criminal Investigation Department and the Attorney General’s Office were supposed to work in coordination with each other to prevent money laundering and repatriate laundered assets.
“But that was not happening because those who were involved were powerful, more so because these institutions were politicised and professionally bankrupt. We have to look into these organisations as part of reforming the ACC.”
Unless these organisations are strong, it would not be wise to expect that the ACC will be able to function fruitfully.
Fourthly, if the power-hungry political culture and partisan bureaucracy persist, the ACC would not be able to control corruption even if it was an ideal organisation.
“The nation has seen enough of the devil of partisan bureaucracy working in collusion with the abuse of political power to create the superstructure of authoritarianism to sustain corruption.”
The scope of reforming the ACC cannot be viewed in isolation from the reform in the political and governance space in a manner that those in power are held to account by the people.
“The commission will make proposals such that the ACC can apply the law equally against anybody — be it a politician, a businessperson, a bureaucrat, a lawmaker, a minister or any high-profile people.”