No govt response to curb large-scale graft: ACC
STAFF REPORTER
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Chairman Iqbal Mahmood yesterday alleged that his commission did not get proper response from the government to curb large scale corruptions in the country. We have told the government that the commission can help to stop corruption in big projects, but we did not receive much positive response. We have also told the cabinet division to help us in stopping corruption in the large-scale projects, but we did not receive necessary response, the ACC chairman said while replying to reporters queries in front of the organisations headquarters in Dhakas Segunbagicha yesterday.
However, the ACC chief said that he is not disappointed for not getting the government response as the commission has been unilaterally working to eradicate and prevent corruption in projects. The matter of preventing the corruption is a continuous process. The cabinet division said that the government is trying, and it is a new concept so graft can be stopped before it takes place, Mahmood noted.
On October 16 in 2016, the ACC sent a letter to the cabinet secretary identifying various areas including procurement, hiring people in government sectors, project acquisition and implementation in which the corruption took place in large scale.
In that letter, the ACC also included many research papers that showed GDP growth could increase by about 2 per cent if corruption was eliminated from these sections.
Talking to media, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam at that time said that the letter had been sent to all the ministries and divisions asking for their help
in identifying grey areas for corruption and in fixing the issues. But no information could be found on how that work had progressed.
In response to another query on whether the ACC is flexible to the parliament members, the ACC chairman yesterday said, It is not right. Many of the people who are currently MPs have been asked for the asset statements.
Mahmood also called for all candidates in the upcoming elections to disclose their wealth information.
However, he denied that corruption in the private sector and the banking sector has increased recently.
Scandals and corruption have now reduced in the banking sector. I believe the banking sector is being overseen properly and that will continue. We believe the bank boards are working well and this has caused the sector to grow 16 per cent, Mahmood noted.
Earlier, on December 10 last year, the ACC chairman at a human chain programme said that the Anti Corruption Commission, through its resources and intelligence, would make the highest efforts to bring to book the big fish in corruption next year.
On August 17 last year, the Supreme Court expressed discontent at the Anti Corruption Commission as it did not implicate former BASIC Bank Chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu and its former board members in two loan scam cases involving Tk 75 crore.
We dont want that the Anti-Corruption Commission maintains any pick and choose policy in implicating accused in such cases, as nobody is above the law. All the allegations must be investigated with importance. Legal action will be taken against the investigation officers if they have any negligence in conducting inquiry, the court had observed.
