Govt not eager to tackle large-scale corruption: ACC

Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman Iqbal Mahmood says the government has not responded to the commission’s efforts to tackle large-scale corruption.

“We told the government that we can help stop corruption in large-scale projects, but we did not receive much of a response.”

The ACC chairman made the remarks to the media in front of the organisation’s headquarters in Dhaka’s Segunbagicha on Monday.

But Mahmood said he was undeterred and that the ACC was working on its own motivation.

“Preventing corruption is a continuous process. The government is trying. We only mentioned the Cabinet Division so that we can prevent corruption before it occurs. It takes time to explain.”

The ACC sent a letter in 2016 to the cabinet secretary identifying various areas in which there was scope for corruption in procurement, hiring, project acquisition and implementation in government departments.

The ACC chairman said the letter included research showing that GDP growth could increase by about 2 percent if corruption was eliminated.

Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told bdnews24.com at the time 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. bdnews24.com did not find any information regarding how that work had progressed.

Mahmood denied that corruption in the private sector had increased recently.

“No, I do not think it is true,” he said in response to a question from the media. “Scandals are becoming less frequent in the banking sector. I believe the banking sector is being overseen properly and that this will continue. We believe the bank boards are working well and this has caused the sector to grow 16 percent.”

Mahmood also called for all candidates in the upcoming elections to disclose their financial resources.