The anti-corruption commission (ACC) will form a number of expert teams on the pattern of the task force of the National Coordination Committee (NCC), now defunct, for investigating corruption cases in a professional manner.

Members of the expert teams would be drawn from different law enforcement and intelligence agencies, Bangladesh Bank and the National Board of Revenue (NBR), sources in the ACC said yesterday. The anti-graft body has proposed to the government to take necessary steps to form the teams by amending the existing Anti-corruption Commission Act as soon as possible, the sources added. After getting the proposal from the ACC, the government formed an expert committee on amendment of the Anti-corruption Commission Act headed by additional secretary of the cabinet division to scrutinise the proposal. Chairman of the committee Tariqul Islam, said that the ACC, Bangladesh Bank, home ministry, law ministry and the establishment ministry have sent separate proposals to the committee.

"We have already held a meeting, where we discussed the proposals. The committee will hold another meeting on September 7," he said. "We hope that the committee will finalise the proposal for amendment of the ACC Act soon following which it would be placed before the cabinet meeting for its approval," he said. Golam Rahman, chairman of the ACC, told The Independent that the government would amend the existing Act with a view to strengthening its activities. "We have initiated steps to form a number of expert teams like the task force of NCC to quickly investigate the corruption cases and strengthen the activities of the ACC," he said. "The ACC cannot function smoothly now," he said adding, "We need financial, functional and administrative independence."

Sources in the cabinet division said that the home ministry has proposed to enlist the services of experts from the law enforcement agencies for investigating corruption cases. Bangladesh Bank has proposed that corruption and money-laundering cases should be investigated separately while the law ministry proposed to establish a separate bench in the higher court for corruption cases and appoint an additional attorney general to conduct such cases. Meanwhile, the establishment ministry has proposed that the ACC should need permission from the concerned higher authorities of the government before filing corruption cases against government officials. Sources said that the government officials are taking a concerted move to strip the Anti-Corruption Commission of the power to file corruption cases against them on the argument that "it will affect the implementation of development programmes".

On the other hand, the experts feel that if ACC is required to take permission before filing such cases, it will "encourage corruption by public officials" as a government official will be reluctant to allow ACC to file cases against his colleagues, they argued. According to sources, the authorities concerned could not take action against 15,343 government officials and employees, who were involved in various irregularities including corruption and misuse of power in the civil administration, in last seven years.

Law Ministry sources said at least 300 government officials and employees including 25 sub-registrars voluntarily made confessional statements about their involvement in corruption before the Truth and Accountability Commission (TAC), now defunct. But even then, no action has been taken against them. Law Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed earlier admitted that the government was yet to take action against the 300 officials and employees, although the minister said earlier that departmental actions would be taken against these officials. It is learnt that government officials are trying to put pressure on the authorities through various means. They are also trying to draw the sympathy of a section of senior officials working at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), so that no action is taken against them.

Sources said that a total of 31,716 cases, including corruption cases, were filed against 31,716 government officials and employees of different ministries, divisions and departments in the last seven years. "Of them, 1,202 were dismissed from their jobs, while departmental action was taken against 11,351. A total of 3,918 were exempted from prosecution, the sources said. The authorities failed to take any action against 15,343 officials, the sources added. According to other sources, corruption and departmental cases in the civil administration increased rapidly this year compared to last year. A total of 17,294 cases were filed against government officers and employees this year while some 14,522 cases were registered last year.

-The Independent