ACC gives most efforts to prevention of graft

DOT Desk: Anti-Corruption Commission spent most of its efforts in corruption prevention activities in the past three years, which has resulted in a fall in the number of cases and charge sheets against corruption suspects during the years, reports The New Age.
About the matter, the ACC said that it was conducting such activities to raise social voice against corruption while anti-corruption campaigners said that ACC should give its highest efforts in the control of corruption, not in preventive activities.
The governance campaigners also said that the common people would be frustrated as they wanted the commission to make its highest effort in controlling corruption to ensure punishment of the corrupt people.
ACC chairman Iqbal Mahmood recently said that the commission would continue its anti-graft drives again soon.
According to the ACC statistics, the commission filed 218 cases in 2018 when it filed 273 cases in 2017, 359 in 2016, 527 in 2015, 333 in 2014, 350 in 2013, 521 in 2012, 366 in 2011, 273 in 2010, 234 in 2009, 979 in 2008, 710 in 2007, 88 in 2006, 23 in 2005 and no case was file in 2004. The commission was formed in 2004.
The data also showed that the commission submitted 241 charge sheets against the graft suspects in 2018 while it was 382 in 2017, 505 in 2016, 614 in 2015, 484 in 2014, 517 in 2013, 588 in 2012, 616 in 2011, 536 in 2010, 475 in 2009, 397 in 2008, 170 in 2007, 47 in 2006 and 13 in 2005.
According to the data, the highest number of cases was filed in 2007 and 2008 when the army-backed caretaker government was in power.
According to the commission statistics, arrest of corruption suspects also fell in the past years which the ACC had emphasised in 2016 after Iqbal Mahmood joined in the commission as its chief.
It said that ACC arrested 60 graft suspects in 2018 while it arrested 182 corruption suspects in 2017 and 388 in 2016.
Besides, the commission formed 3,221 corruption prevention committees across the country in 2017 while the figure was 493 in 2016 and it formed Honesty Units at 4,094 schools in 2017, the ACC officials said.
The latest data of forming corruption prevention committees and Honesty Units was not available with the ACC till Thursday.
About the matter, the ACC chairman said that the commission emphasised prevention activities as it wanted to create strong moral resistance against corruption.
He said that the commission wanted to file no cases to harass people and to arrest selective people.
Former cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder told New Age that the commission should give equal priority on control and prevention of corruption.
He said that people would be hopeless if the commission put its maximum efforts into preventive activities.
Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman said that people wanted to see the commission as a watchdog against corruption which would ensure punishment of the corrupt people.
He said that the commission should give its highest efforts to curbing corruption as it was the only state-run institute working against corruption.
In the latest Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International Bangladesh ranked the 13th most corrupt country going down four notches from the 17th position in 2017.
Transparency International identified deficit of delivery against commitment, high profile corruption rarely addressed and pervasive conflict of interest- political and government position pervasive as means of enrichment as the factors that increased corruption in Bangladesh in 2018.
It also identified unabated financial and banking sector crisis including loan defaults and bank fraud, grabbing of land, river and water bodies; political control of contracting and recruitment business also contributed to the result.
It also said those embarrassingly high and unabated illicit financial transfers, weakening institutions of accountability, deficit in effectiveness and independence of Anti-Corruption Commission, denial syndrome, impunity- weakening rule of law and shrinking media and civil society space also as contributing factors.
It said that Bangladesh needed effective delivery of prime minister’s declaration of zero tolerance against corruption without fear and favour to perform better in the corruption index.
It recommended a national anti-corruption strategy to implement zero tolerance and effectively challenge impunity and bring the corrupt to justice irrespective of status or identity.
The TI stressed the need for effective institutions including Parliament, ACC, judiciary, Attorney General’s Office, office of Comptroller and Auditor General and National Board of Revenue.
It also demanded professional integrity and impartiality of public servants, administration and law-enforcement agencies free from partisan political influence.
The TI stressed the need for robust access to information, faster, wider and deeper digitization and increased space for citizens, media, the civil society, the NGOs for effective voice and accountability.