The Anti-Corruption Commission’s activities to bring corruption suspects under scrutiny are gathering pace following the August 5 fall of the Awami League government amid a student-led mass uprising.
The commission has also expedited its probes into new graft allegations, while it has widened its net in a bid to bring more individuals under scrutiny after the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government had taken charge on August 8.
The anti-corruption agency’s data shows that it took decision for 93 new enquiries, mostly regarding relatively smaller corruption charges, from April 1 to June 30, this year.
But it took decision for new enquiries against around 100 people, including heavyweights like former ministers, lawmakers and bureaucrats, within only 12 working days of the new government.
During the time of the Awami League rule, numerous allegations against powerful individuals regarding amassing illegal wealth through corruption, irregularities, money laundering, and abuse of power were gathered at the commission.
The commission could not carry out investigation into these allegations due to pressure from corners associated with the then ruling Awami League, said its officials.
Now that the Awami League is no more in power and the hindrances are removed, the commission now feels strong enough to probe the graft allegations against many formerly powerful individuals, including former ministers, lawmakers, and money launderers, officials said.
Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman told New Age that the commission’s fresh move might be viewed as welcome news, quite belated though, in the backdrop of the self-inflicted credibility gap of the agency.
‘While people will expect to see specific progress to ensure exemplary accountability of such erstwhile high-profile individuals for their abuse of power, this will remain yet another example that ACC tends to act against the so-called big fish only when they are out of power,’ Iftekharuzzaman said.
It would not be unjustified to question that by failing to take action before their humiliating downfall, the anti-corruption agency had in reality protected their corruption and violated their own mandate as well as the relevant law, he observed.
‘Be that as it may, nothing can justify any underestimation of the imperatives for a thorough overhaul of this institution as part of the state-restructuring to meet the aspirations of a new Bangladesh as articulated by the student-led people’s uprising,’ he said.
The anti-corruption commission, meanwhile, is going to launch a combined drive against corruption and to recover illegal money from this week, said a top official of the commission on Thursday.
The drive will be conducted led by its enforcement unit with the help of its other based on the information of its intelligence wing, he added.
The commission in the past week also formed a panel to maintain the anti-corruption operations and support the law enforcement agencies.
The panel includes its deputy directors Debabrata Mondal, Md Humayun Kabir, Md Saiful Islam, and Md Tajul Islam Bhuiyan, and assistant directors Muhammad Zafar Sadeq Shibli and Shoyeb Ibne Alam.
The panel will assist in seizing evidence and handling legal matters during search operations.
Notably, after the interim government assumed power the commission is opening new enquiries one after another and resumed enquiries in pending probes.
Earlier, after submission of an allegation, scrutiny used to be kept long pending, but now it starts inquiry within 2–3 days of the submission of allegations.
Apart from starting new inquiries, the commission has also undertaken initiatives to dispose of pending inquiries and cases, a task that it could not complete due to political pressures, commission officials said.
After Hasina’s fall, the commission took decision to run inquiry against a number of former ministers, state ministers, lawmakers, secretaries, and beneficiaries on the charges of amassing illegal wealth through corruption.
As part of its fresh move, the commission has prepared a primary list of at least 200 graft suspects to bring them under its scrutiny, one of its directors general told New Age.
The commission’s inquiries have already been launched against a number of formerly powerful ministers, lawmakers, and businesspeople, including former ministers Asaduzzaman Khan, Dipu Moni, Anisul Huq, Hasan Mahmud, Golam Dastagir Gazi, Shajahan Khan, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed, Mostafizur Rahman Fizar, Tipu Munshi, Sadan Chandra Majumder, Imran Ahmed, and Mohibul Hassan Chowdhuey, former state ministers Nasrul Hamid, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Jakir Hossain, Kamal Ahmed Mojumder, and Sharif Ahmed, former lawmakers retired lieutenant general Masud Uddin Chowdhury, Nizam Uddin Hazari, Benazir Ahmed, Dhirendro Debnath Shambhu, Jannat Ara Henry, Ashim Kumar Ukil, Opu Ukil, and Shahe Alam, and the prime minister’s former deputy press secretary Ashraful Alam Khokon, former Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University vice-chancellor Sharfuddin Ahmed, former cabinet secretary Kabir Bin Anwar, former senior secretary Shah Kamal, National Board of Revenue second secretary Arjina Khatun, former Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia, and DMP’s former Detective Branch chief Harun Or Rashid, S Alam group chairman Mohammed Saiful Alam, and Padma bank former chairman Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat.
About the commission’s intensified move, its secretary Khorsheda Yasmeen said that they received allegations against ministers, lawmakers, and others earlier but there was a delay in taking decisions due to ‘procedural causes.’
‘We are starting new inquiries following the ACC law, and there is no special anything,’ she added.
New age